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A bill authorizing the Alabama Farmers Federation to offer health coverage to its members passed the House of Representatives Thursday after a lengthy debate over whether the Department of Insurance should enforce the act.
The version of the HB477 that passed the House on Thursday has been heavily amended since its introduction by Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, who said the bill had been amended 16 times already by the time it came to a vote. Most of those amendments came at the recommendation of the insurance industry and hospitals, including insured coverage for mental health and prescription drugs and protection from having coverage canceled due to a single medical incident.
Faulkner expressed willingness to accept those numerous amendments, but came before the body asking them to undo just one: an amendment adding language giving the Department of Insurance enforcement of the act.
“The state’s Department of Insurance does not regulate self-funded plans,” he said. “And the federal regulation that applies to self-funded plans does not have any application to our bill. Our bill is far more comprehensive, and so it doesn’t make sense for that to be on there.”
Faulkner’s call to strike that committee-added language led to a. debate that lasted more than two hours, as lawmakers came to the well whether to support removing the language or keeping it in place.
Rep. Frances Holk-Jones, R-Foley, who drafted the amendment Faulkner wanted removed, said that enforcement by the insurance department is merely a precaution.
“These amendments, this one in particular, that says the plan will be enforced by the Department of Insurance, it is just a precaution,” Holk-Jones said. “It is a precaution for those individuals who have this policy. I call it a prenup. While we are in love with each other, and while we are agreeing to everything, that is when we want the prenup.”
Eventually, the House voted to strip the language requiring enforcement by the Department of Insurance and then passed the bill on its face on a 98-1 vote.
Faulkner has championed the bill as an opportunity to reduce the costs of health care coverage for the state’s farmers who make too much to qualify for federal subsidies and get no corporate health benefits.
“The rising cost of health care is a significant burden for our farmers,” Faulkner said. “As legislators, there is little we can do about fertilizer costs, or the price of cotton. But we can make a difference in one of the largest household costs for many farmer families and other citizens in Alabama regarding their health care coverage.”
Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, was the lone “no” vote on the bill.
The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.
