An alarming health care bill was introduced on Thursday in the West Virginia legislature by Delegate Ray Canterbury, R-Greenbrier. If enacted, the legislation would provide significant incentives for state employees to seek medical care overseas.
This latest wrinkle in our national health care catastrophe, should have received more attention because if passed, it could become a template for other states dealing with unsustainable and escalating health care costs.
Today, West Virgina, tomorrow, New York and California. We're on a very slippery slope here, dare I predict.
When Delegate Ray Canterbury, R-Greenbrier, took the House of Delegates floor Thursday he wasn't sure how seriously his colleagues considered his idea to outsource West Virginia state employees' health care to foreign countries.
"I want to use the global free market to fix the American health-care system," Canterbury said.
He proposed legislation (HB4359) that would allow those covered by the state Public Employees Insurance Agency to go to foreign hospitals for operations.
"I want to give them access to Bumrungrad International in Bangkok, Thailand," he said, noting CBS' "60 Minutes" compared the hospital to a five-star resort.
That hospital performs open-heart surgery for under $8,000, an astoundingly low price compared to the same operation in Charleston or Morgantown.
He then named several other resort-status foreign hospitals in such places as New Delhi, India, and Singapore, all which, he said, have top quality health care at a lower price.
http://www.wvgazette.com/...
In addition, Matthew Holt who is one of the foremost health care bloggers, makes an even more ominious point. First, outsourcing health care for state employees will be an option, something someone can elect. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, a state employee will be required to go overseas for expensive treatment.
"Apparently there's a bill in the legislature that will allow (and presumably eventually if it's going to have an impact, force) state employees to go overseas to get elective care. Pretty interesting stuff, and it means that hospitals there may have to compete with those in Thailand and India on price. Gulp."
http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/
Here's the bill:
H. B. 4359
(By Delegates Canterbury, Walters and Eldridge)
[Introduced February 2, 2006; referred to the
Committee on Banking and Insurance then Finance.]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §5-16-28, relating to establishing a system to reduce the cost of medical care paid by the Public Employees Insurance Agency by providing incentives to covered employees to obtain treatment in low cost foreign health care facilities accredited by the Joint Commission International .
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §5-16-28, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 16. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES INSURANCE ACT.
§5-16-28. Authorization for treatment in foreign health care facilities accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI); Incentives for covered employees; rebate of savings.
(a) Not later than the first day of July, 2006, the director shall establish a program of incentives for covered employees who elect to obtain medical care or medical procedures in health care facilities accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI) when the cost of the medical care or medical procedure in the foreign health care facility is less than the cost of the medical care or medical procedure available in a health care facility in this country: Provided, That the difference in the cost of the foreign health care is equal to or greater than the total cost of the incentives.
The incentives shall include:
- Waiver of all co-payments and deductible payments;
- Payment of cost of round trip air fares for the covered employee and one companion;
- Lodging expenses in the foreign country for the companion for the length of the treatment or procedure;
- Lodging expenses in the foreign country for the covered employee and the companion for not more than seven days of convalescence after the treatment or procedure;
- Payment to the covered employees hiring agency for seven days of paid sick leave which are not counted against the employees accrued sick leave; and
- Rebate not more than twenty percent of the cost savings directly to the covered employee.
(b) The director shall establish a fund within the agency for the deposit of the remaining eighty percent cost savings. Not later than the first day of July of each fiscal year, the director shall rebate the moneys in the fund in equal amounts to each covered employee.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a system to reduce the cost of medical care paid for by the Public Employees Insurance Agency by providing incentives to covered employees to obtain treatment in foreign health care facilities accredited by the Joint Commission International. Under the bill, if there are sufficient savings to do so, covered employees may choose to travel to foreign countries for medical care and treatment with the cost of travel, lodging and the treatment paid for by PEIA. In addition, PEIA would reimburse the employee twenty percent of any savings, pay for the lodging and travel cost of a companion, pay for the cost of lodging for seven days of convalescence and pay the employer for seven days of paid sick leave for the employee.
http://www.legis.state.wv.us/...