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Senate Insurance and Commerce
Feb. 22, 2022
Pitsch … to Senate, Insurance and Commerce. Representative Evans, House Bill 1097. You are recognized to present your bill.
Evans Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members, House Bill 1097. This is one of the EBD bills that we’ve all worked so hard on, could be one of the– as it was referred to– the big apples. What this bill simply does, it makes adjustments to the withholding contribution that our school districts will be making. It will move it from an average of about 165 up to 300. That will not be any type of disparity to your school districts, but the department will make that back up as they fund that through the matrix based off of ADM. And then going forward, Joint Education, as we do adequacy studies, we will be reviewing all of the data collected from that to see if we need to make any adjustments. With that, Mr. Chair, I’ll take any questions.
Pitsch Thank you, Representative Evans. Committee, are there any questions? Seeing none, I think we beat this up a lot already. Is there anybody in the audience– we have one person signed to speak. Mr. Kane. Do you have any– would you like to speak? Is he here? OK. Virgil Kane out of Danville. All right. Somebody is having fun. All right. Let’s move on. I have a motion do pass. Do I have a second? Senator Irvin on the motion. If we can get Senator Elliott to quit laughing, she’ll give me a second, maybe. A second from Senator Elliott. Is there any other comments on this bill? Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Same sign opposed. Your bill has passed. Thank you, Rep. Evans.
Evans Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee.
Pitsch We will move to House Bill 1098, which is to require a fiscal impact statement for any proposed legislation. Do we have the Senate sponsor on that? Do you want to do that? We’ve already passed it out of the committee, so let’s do that. You’re good with this? We’ve got notes. Senator Irvin, you will present the bill for Senator Rice and Representative Dodson, I understand.
Irvin Yes.
Pitsch All right. You are recognized.
Irvin Thank you, members. This is House Bill 1098. This really legislation was the result of our study with the Segal Group, which would require a fiscal impact statement to be developed by an actuary within the guidelines adopted by the House Committee on Insurance and Commerce and Senate Committee on Insurance and Commerce as applicable. Any legislation that would be proposed that might adjust or change premiums or cost the plans any additional money, we need to know that before voting on that legislation. So what this bill does is requires that fiscal impact statement before we vote on that legislation in the insurance and commerce committees in the House and Senate. I’ll be happy to take any questions.
Pitsch Are there any committee members with questions? Seeing none, is there anybody in the audience to speak? Seeing none, what is the will– I guess, Senator Irvin, your eligible–
Irvin Motion do pass.
Pitsch –to make a motion do pass. Do I have a second? Senator Elliott with the second. Any final comment on House bill 1098? Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Same sign opposed. The motion– or the bill passes. And we will move on to House Bill 1099.
Irvin Mr. Chair, I’ll go ahead and handle these.
Pitsch Do you know the Senate version?
Irvin I do.
Pitsch Would you mind telling us who the Senate sponsor is?
Irvin Yes, it’s Senator Rice.
Pitsch Rice has got that one.
Irvin I’m a co-sponsor, Sen. Hickey and I.
Pitsch And then who is the senator of record on 1100? So I can at least announce–.
Irvin Senator Rice.
Pitsch He’s got both of these?
Irvin Yes.
Pitsch OK, so Senator Irvin, you will present for Senator Rice and Representative Wardlaw on House Bill 1999. You are recognized.
Irvin Members, what this does is it sets up the legislative oversight for the state and public school life and health insurance programs, and it establishes the EBD Employee Benefits Division Oversight Subcommittee. It calls for quarterly reports of an update to provide that transparency and kind of a continual check on where things are and how things are going so we don’t end up in a situation where we’re a little bit blindsided by lack of sufficient funding for the plans. So this is the oversight piece.
Pitsch OK, any questions of the members? This is the House version of the Senate bill that was passed and has moved on since. Any questions? Anybody in the audience wish to speak for or against this bill? Seeing none, Senator Irvin, would you like to make a motion?
Irvin I am closed for the bill and make a motion do pass on the House bill 1099.
Pitsch Do I have a second from a committee member? Senator Hammer with the second. Any final comments on House bill 10989? Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Same sign opposed. Your bill has passed. Let’s move on to House bill 1100. Representative Wardlaw, Senator Rice. Senator Irvin, you’ll present.
Irvin It’s Senator Hickey’s bill, but I’m happy to–
Pitsch Senator Hickey, do you want to–
Irvin I’m happy to– we’re kind of a tag– we’re kind of a team.
Pitsch Team on all this. I know we’ve– we’re doing duplicate with House bills coming our direction. So, Senator Hickey, you are recognized on House Bill 1100.
Hickey Yes, members. This is, as Senator Pitsch said, this is the same bill that we’ve already heard multiple times. It’s the one that establishes a governing, governing body for the state public life and health insurance programs.
Pitsch Are there any questions for Senator Hickey? Seeing none, is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak for or against? Seeing no one, Senator Hickey, would you like to make a motion?
Hickey Move do pass.
Pitsch A motion do pass, Senator Hickey. I need– the chair needs a second. Senator Elliott. Is there any final comment on House bill 1100? Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Same sign opposed. And that bill has passed. Members, I think that clears our docket. There– if there’s something else, it seems like they’re running a lot of bills through this committee, we’ll let you know. But right now, I think this clears up what we’ve sent down there. So thank you and with that, seeing no further business, we are adjourned.