New Alfa health plan bill to start in House

MONTGOMERY — A new bill to allow the Alabama Farmers Federation to sell health care plans to its members has been filed in the Alabama House.

Alfa officials and sponsor Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, say additional oversight provisions in House Bill 447 are an effort to compromise with bill critics. They say the legislation is needed to help farmers paying high insurance premiums, often to the detriment of their farming businesses.

"With this introduced version, we would be the most regulated Farm Bureau health plan in the country," Preston Roberts, Alfa's director of agricultural legislation, told Alabama Daily News. "There's more in House Bill 477 than any other statute that's currently on the books.

"Despite that, we feel like we are still able to offer an affordable product to our members with all these changes and satisfy some of the concerns that we've heard along the way."

A public hearing on House Bill 477 is scheduled for Wednesday morning in the House Health Committee. The bill has 39 GOP co-sponsors.

Still, significant opposition remains from those who say the legislation would allow Alfa to offer health plans that look like insurance, but don't have the same requirements or protections.

Sophie Martin, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama's director of corporate communications, said BCBS continues to pursue more amendments that require farm bureau plans to comply with state and federal laws meant to protect consumers.

"Blue Cross still opposes Alfa's Farm Bureau health plans because they are bad for consumers. If passed as originally proposed, Alfa's Farm Bureau Health Plans would not be subject to even minimal guardrails including being prohibited from canceling their customers who get sick and suddenly incur more claims, and they wouldn't be required to include essential benefits like prescription drugs or mental health services. These 'plans' could also result in Alabamians being discriminated against based on pre-existing conditions like diabetes or cancer."

Faulkner said Alfa should be able to offer this option to their members who need to reduce their health care premiums.

"This is not meant to be health insurance as the (Affordable Care Act) came around in 2010 and defined it," he said. "But it is trying to be an option for some people that won't negatively impact other people."

Alfa has said it won't end coverage for people unless they stop paying their premiums. That's not in the bill, but it doesn't need to be, Faulkner said.

"They're not going to keep members if they don't run this properly," he said. "They won't stay in business if they do the thing that people seem fearful about."

Alfa argues Alabama farmers are in a "middle-class donut hole," working for themselves and not having employer-provided insurance plans and making too much money to qualify for subsidies offered under the Affordable Care Act.

The proposal is based on a decades-old Farm Bureau option in Tennessee that's been duplicated in about 10 other states.