Faced with the possibility of huge penalties under the federal Affordable Care Act, the Florida House appears likely to support offering health-insurance coverage to about 8,700 temporary state workers.
Members of a House select committee Thursday unanimously expressed support for the move, which would affect temporary employees in state agencies and the higher-education system who work an average of 30 or more hours a week. Under current law, those people -- known in Tallahassee as "other personnel services," or OPS, workers -- are not eligible for the state-employee health insurance program.
The federal Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, requires large employers to offer coverage to workers who average 30 hours a week. If Florida doesn't offer the coverage to the OPS workers, it could face fines of about $320 million.
Republicans on the select committee, which has spent weeks studying the Affordable Care Act, said the state needs to make the change to avoid the potential penalties. Officials said the coverage would cost an estimated $35.6 million during the upcoming 2013-14 fiscal year, only a fraction of the potential fines.
"You either play their (the federal government's) way or you get hit with a significant penalty,'' committee member John Wood, R-Winter Haven, said.
Some Republicans raised the possibility of taking steps such as offering lower-cost insurance plans to OPS workers than are provided to full-time state workers. But Rep. Elaine Schwartz, D-Hollywood, objected to that suggestion, saying OPS and other workers should be treated the same.
"The spirit of PPACA (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the formal name of Obamacare) is that everyone will be covered,'' Schwartz said.
The committee, which expects to take up a bill on the OPS insurance issue in two weeks, is moving toward decisions on key parts of carrying out the Affordable Care Act. It will meet Monday to discuss the highly contentious issue of whether to expand eligibility for the Medicaid program.
Gov. Rick Scott last week said he would support such an expansion for three years and then revisit the issue. But House select committee Chairman Richard Corcoran, R-Land O' Lakes, said Thursday he is skeptical of the expansion -- a view that echoes the position of House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.
Corcoran raised concerns about a potential growing doctor shortage if hundreds of thousands of people become eligible for Medicaid. Also, he pointed to questions about costs, though the federal government says it would pay the entire tab during the first three years of the expansion.
The select committee Thursday also grappled with a tangle of insurance-regulation issues that stem from the Affordable Care Act. Those issues center, at least in part, on the role of the state Office of Insurance Regulation and conflicts between the state insurance code and the federal health law.
While lawmakers likely will consider a bill to deal with regulatory issues, the Office of Insurance Regulation has been working on an arrangement with federal officials that would involve the state agency continuing to review insurers' rates and what are known as policy "forms."
The Office of Insurance Regulation would review the documents for compliance with state and federal laws and rules. It would report violations of the Affordable Care Act's insurance regulations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
But Wood questioned whether state law allows the Office of Insurance Regulation to play such a role.
"Where is the statutory authority for you to review filings for compliance with federal law?" he asked Wences Troncoso, a deputy insurance commissioner.
Troncoso said the Office of Insurance Regulation already has such authority to report issues to the federal government.
The deputy commissioner described the Affordable Care Act as an "ever-evolving conundrum" of new rules and regulations. Wood said he is worried the Affordable Care Act will spur large premium increases and likened the federal government's role in the insurance market to Big Brother.
"This Affordable Care Act is so Orwellian when the word, 'affordable' is used,'' he said.
But House Minority Leader Perry Thurston, D-Plantation, took issue with the descriptions of a "conundrum" or "Orwellian." He said other states are complying with the law.
"It sounds like Chicken Little to me,'' Thurston said.
