Commissioner quoted in this Tribune article on Hillsborough County Healthcare Plan:
Local health care plan awaits high court ruling
By MARY SHEDDEN | The Tampa Tribune
Published: June 10, 2012 Updated: June 10, 2012 – 12:00 AM
TAMPA —
Revamping of a Hillsborough County health plan for poor people remains in limbo as local leaders wait for a U.S. Supreme Court decision on national health care reform.
More than 13,000 Hillsborough residents participate in the 20-year-old health insurance of last resort. But those numbers likely will rise or fall once the high court decides whether President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act is constitutional.
For months, the Hillsborough County Health Care Plan Advisory Board has hesitated in making changes to the local plan, with meetings focusing on a lot of “what ifs” about who qualifies for its primary care, specialists, out-patient treatment and prescription coverage.
Once the national debate about “Obamacare” is clarified, local leaders say, they will know how many people will need help from the local plan. To prepare, the advisory board already has identified which aspects of the plan it needs to evaluate for cost effectiveness and impact.
“We’ll be ready for either pass or fail,” said county Department of Family and Aging Services Director Gene Earley, who serves as the staff administrator for the advisory board.
The urgency to streamline and improve health services for residents was behind last week’s request by Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman to re-evaluate the local plan. Murman said she didn’t know the advisory board was making plans to do the same.
She pulled the request after speaking with Earley.
“This is the best time to be doing this and be ahead of the curve,” Murman said.
However, the wait-and-see approach has frustrated some advisory board members and observers, who are eager to add more participants or programs, such as dental care.
Dena Leavengood, a community activist who has followed the plan for a dozen years, said she’s concerned that indecision will make the plan vulnerable to politics.
“They shouldn’t wait. They should go and do something,” Leavengood said. “We’re doing a disservice. It could be a model.”
The Hillsborough County Health Care Plan was created in 1991 as a preventative health plan for people unable to get private or government-backed insurance such as Medicaid. A half-cent county sales tax, and a related trust fund, pays for most of the care.
Earley said despite the pending Supreme Court case, the advisory board has been trying to make the plan more cost-efficient, sometimes using recommendations from a politically appointed committee that evaluated the plan several years ago.
The advisory board has made other strides, he said. For example, it identified and revamped a prescription drug plan, saving an estimated $10 million a year.
And this summer, the county is verifying the residency and qualifications of all 13,000 current participants. A sample survey of 380 clients found 18 percent lacked proper proof that they met the residency or income requirements, Earley said.
Nearly 75 percent of the 13,000 Hillsborough residents now in the plan are single, between the ages 19 and 64, county records show. Sixty-five percent are unemployed and another 22 percent have jobs that don’t provide health insurance.
Cutting costs helps sustain the trust fund, which also supplements health care for local children and programs at local jails and hospitals, Earley said. In recent years, the fund also has been tapped to reimburse the state for local Medicaid care.
Leavengood worries these financial demands cloud the county’s original intent: to provide preventative care to the working poor and keep them out of the emergency room.
“I do see potential for it to be raided again,” Leavengood said.
But the sales tax and trust fund shouldn’t be locked into a single purpose, Murman said. The plan should regularly be evaluated to make sure the local sales tax is providing the best health care assistance to its current residents, she said.
“In 15 years, things do change,” Murman said. “I think we’ve got an excellent staff that … can see what we are spending our money on and when there are missed opportunities or gaps.”
