Shad Plank: Changing minds and consistency on catastrophic health insurance bill

Sometimes, legislators have second thoughts -- but sometimes they’re consistent.

Take the reaction to this year’s version of a GOP health-care proposal that Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam vetoed last year. Despite the Democratic takeover that gave the party a new 12-3 majority on the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, the panel passed the bill again. It squeaked by this time, in an 8-7 vote Tuesday.

The bill would allow people over 30 to buy the very high deductible health insurance authorized by the Affordable Care Act with the aim of getting young, healthy Americans to buy coverage.

It sailed through the Senate, 38-2 last year, and eked through what was then a GOP-controlled House on a party-line vote.

Northam vetoed it, saying it would allow Virginians to buy coverage that really didn’t cover much, leading many to forgo care they needed. And, he added, it would financially undermine other ACA policies.

Senate Commerce and Labor Chairman Dick Saslaw, D-Springfield, who voted for the measure in committee and on the floor of the state Senate last year, reminded committee members of the veto as Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, presented the measure Tuesday.

“What’s different about this?” Saslaw asked.

And Suetterlein said the bill was the same.

The committee, however, wasn’t. Nor was the presentation: Opponents spoke up to say, among other things, that if a lot of over 30s signed up for the coverage, its price would rise, and the GOP argument that the bill would provide a lower cost option would be frustrated.

“I was surprised,” said Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, who had made the bill a top Senate GOP priority in 2019.

“I don’t remember there being much opposition presented last year -- maybe that made the difference,” he said.

“It was a good bill last year and it’s a good bill this year,” Suetterlein said. “I got the crossover votes I needed.”

Whatever the reason -- the new testimony about the likely impact on premiums of broadening access to the plans or discovery after their vote of the governor’s concerns -- Saslaw and three new committee members, David Marsden, D-Fairfax; Creigh Deeds, D-Warm Springs; and Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, voted against it, although they supported the measure when it reached the floor last year. (They were joined in opposition by John Edwards, D-Roanoke, and Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, the two senators who opposed the measure last year. Sen. John Bell, D-Loudoun, also opposed the bill, as he had on the floor of the House of Delegates last year.)

“I think it’s insurance that’s not really insurance,” Deeds said. “I read the governor’s veto message ... I’ve always felt I should try to be smarter tomorrow than I am today.”

But committee members Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg; Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomac; Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth; Lionell Spruill, D-Chesapeake; and George Barker, D-Alexandria, voted in favor of the bill, as they did last year. So did Norment and the committee’s two other Republicans.

“I just think it gives people an option,” Lewis said. And asked about Northam’s veto, he replied:

“We make up our own minds here.”

Shad Plank is the Daily Press blog that tracks Virginia politics. It takes its name from the traditional Shad Planking political get-together, though hopefully it is tastier than the roasted fish featured at that Sussex County event. To contact Dave Ress with tips or questions, call 757-247-4535 or email [email protected].

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