Enzi Health Plan Bill Dies

The Senate effectively killed legislation May 11 that would have allowed businesses to join together in so-called small business health plans [SBHPs], refusing to cut off debate on the measure, BusinessInsurance.com reported.

"The amended version of the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act S. 1955 had been designed to quell some Democratic opposition to the bill by giving states more power to regulate variation in premiums along the proposed SBHPs," explained writer Mark Hoffman at BusinessInsurance.com.

The bill, also known as the Enzi bill, since it was sponsored by Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY), would have allowed the proposed SBHPs to avoid state benefit mandates. This bill thus would have eliminated existing and future prosthetic parity bills, pointed out Elizabeth Mansfield, Outsource Marketing Solutions LLC, Hartford, Connecticut. "If passed, this bill will eliminate prosthetic and orthotic mandates in California, Colorado, Oregon, Maine, and New Hampshire and will prevent any further mandates from being enacted," she said prior to the vote in a May 8 post on the OANDP-L listserve.

Proponents of the bill held that SBHPs would make healthcare coverage more affordable and widespread, observed Hoffman, while opponents felt that it would have removed consumer protections without making insurance more affordable. An effort May 11 to invoke cloture to prevent any potential filibusters failed to gain enough votes; all but one Democratic senator voted against cloture while all Republican members present in the chamber voted for cloture. "The Senate appears unlikely to revisit the issue during this session," said Hoffman.