Friday, March 25, 2011
Austin, TX - Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak promised Friday to protect Oklahoma values in the development of a state-based health insurance exchange during a speech at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ national spring meeting.
"I told the committee members that I have been and remain opposed to ObamaCare," Doak said, "but I am a businessman. I know you have to have a backup plan. I support Attorney General Scott Pruitt and the other states’ attorneys general who are attempted to have this federal law overturned in the courts and our congressional delegation that would like to see it repealed. If those efforts are unsuccessful, Oklahoma must be prepared to fight on another front and an insurance exchange that takes a market-based approach and promotes robust and fair competition is the best way to do that. If we do nothing, we will lose the fight because the federal government will create and impose an exchange on Oklahoma that likely will ignore our needs and most certainly our conservative ideals."
Doak spoke Friday to the exchange subgroup of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Health Insurance and Managed Care Committee. Following are Doak’s complete remarks:
Fellow insurance commissioners:
With a clear call from the public for better health care and greater access to care, but the legal standing of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act very much in question, it is a challenging time to be a state insurance commissioner.
I remain adamantly opposed to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. I believe it to be unconstitutional in the individual mandate to buy insurance it imposes upon taxpayers, continued analysis by the Congressional Budget Office shows its estimated costs skyrocketing even before the majority of PPACA’s obligations have been implemented, and I consider the federal law a power-grab by Washington in a field where the states’ sovereignty has always been recognized – the regulation of the insurance market within our individual borders. I applaud Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin for her stand against these flawed federal regulations, and join our state’s Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has filed a lawsuit against PPACA, in pledging to fight its implementation.
Nevertheless, as the duly elected insurance commissioner of the state of Oklahoma, my first obligation always is to the best interests of my constituents. Therefore it is my duty as Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner to do everything within my power to fully prepare my state for health insurance exchanges that are mandated by PPACA, should that legislation withstand a Supreme Court challenge. Any state that fails to establish its own health insurance exchange by 2013 risks a federal takeover of the process should PPACA still stand at that time.
Fortunately, insurance exchanges can serve the public and the industry well regardless of PPACA’s survival, provided the system improves consumer choice and drives down consumer costs through healthy competition that incorporates, rather than undermines, our licensed agents and domiciled insurance producers. Conservatives have long touted the benefits of a market-driven insurance exchange, and in 2009, the Oklahoma Legislature authorized creation of such an exchange based on model legislation introduced by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank.
To be successful in Oklahoma, an insurance exchange must take a market-based approach that promotes robust and fair competition within the system, because a less competitive market reduces choices and raises costs for consumers. It must include our state’s knowledgeable, professional agents and licensed producers, because they are best prepared and positioned to assist Oklahomans in making sound insurance choices. An effective exchange should preserve and enhance the options employers have at their disposal for insuring workers, should limit disruptions to the current insurance market, and should do no harm to existing state-based initiatives that are working, such as high-risk pools, associational health plans, and our state’s Insure Oklahoma program for small businesses. It shall not use government funds to provide abortion services, and shall not mandate that insurers offer coverage for, nor dictate that health care professionals provide, abortion services as requirements of participating in the system. And, the exchange must be developed in a transparent process that allows consumers, government and professional stakeholders alike to participate in shaping the best possible system for Oklahoma.
My six keys to unlocking the right health insurance exchange system:
1. Consumer-Driven Goals: The public deserves greater access to insurance and better health care services at a lower cost. The right health insurance exchange for the people of Oklahoma must achieve all three of these objectives.
2. Consumer Protection: Licensed brokers and agents play a key role in protecting insurance consumers. They have earned the trust of their policyholders and are vital to educating consumers on their coverage options. These agents and brokers are the experts in the field who help Oklahoma families and businesses meet their health insurance needs.
3. Transparency: As these exchanges are designed, the public must have full and open access to the process. The people will not and should not trust a system that was negotiated and devised behind closed doors.
4. Accountability: The federal government’s mismanagement of Medicare and Medicaid, which are frequently disparaged for their underpayment for services and are rife with fraud, is evidence enough that the job can be done much better. Government must stop making promises it can’t keep and writing checks that future generations of taxpayers can’t cash. This state-based system of health insurance exchanges must be smart, successful and solvent.
5. Competition: An open, online exchange market in which every licensed health insurance carrier that wishes to participate has a fair opportunity to make its bid for each customer’s business is the most beneficial system both for insurers and the insured. Good firms have the opportunity to grow their business by providing proven value to policyholders, while consumers benefit from access to information, far greater choice of insurance products, and competitive pricing.
6. Achievement-Oriented: Administrators of the exchange must be quick to recognize and remediate or remove poor performers within the system. This protects consumers while also providing greater opportunity for high-performing insurers.
Following these guidelines, exchanges can be a viable, valuable tool for providing health insurance coverage to the thousands of Oklahomans and perhaps the millions of Americans who are presently uninsured due to cost, and in the future I would like to invite my fellow insurance commissioners to gather in Oklahoma to discuss the possibilities. While no single health insurance exchange will fit all states, we all might have ideas or strategies that could be tailored to suit another state’s population.
I am proud to work alongside Gov. Mary Fallin in representing Oklahoma’s conservative values throughout the process of creating a market-based health insurance exchange for our state. It should be up to the states, not the U.S. Congress, to determine whether and how exchanges are implemented, and as insurance commissioners, each of us is sworn to make the right choice for the people of our respective states.
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ABOUT THE OKLAHOMA INSURANCE DEPARTMENTThe Oklahoma Insurance Department, an agency of the State of Oklahoma, is responsible for the education and protection of the insurance-buying public and for oversight of the insurance industry in the state.
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For more information contact:
Shawn Ashley
(405) 521-4525
(405) 568-6004
e-mail: shawn.ashley@oid.ok.gov