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Crist's Health Insurance Plan Falling Apart Before It Starts

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 6, 2008

Cover Florida, a new low-cost health insurance plan Gov. Charlie Crist says will address the problem of the uninsured, looks like a dud before it gets out of the gate.

Chalk up health insurance as yet another complex problem for which Crist developed a Band-Aid solution.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based organization that studies the working class, says Cover Florida is unlikely to reduce the number of uninsured people living here - almost 3.7 million people, or about one in four adults under age 65.

Turns out the working poor aren't enthusiastic about spending $150 a month for a bare-bones health policy that comes with high out-of-pocket expenses and low limits on coverage. For starters, the plan might exclude pre-existing conditions. It definitely will exclude coverage for certain illnesses and conditions that other insurance carriers must cover by law. Cover Florida comes with no such mandates, which is why the premiums are lower.

But now it seems Florida's health insurance carriers are lukewarm to the notion of getting involved in the program.

Proposals are due to the Agency for Health Care Administration by Aug. 12, but already some large carriers, including Humana, say they won't bid.

A Humana spokesman told the Naples Daily News that the company already offers a low-cost, high-deductible plan, and it doubts Cover Florida will have a major impact on solving the problem of the uninsured in Florida.

Yet Crist's former campaign manager, George Lemieux, says Cover Florida is a good reason why Crist should be John McCain's running mate.

Unfortunately, the plan is another example of Crist nibbling at the edges of a big problem instead of addressing the challenge head-on in comprehensive fashion.

Cover Florida might have been a stronger option had it undergone the kind of vigorous debate in Tallahassee that health-care reform deserves. But instead of a thorough vetting, the governor pulled the plan out of nowhere and legislative leaders slid it through.

Lost along the way was the knowledge that Florida already has a low-cost health insurance program that's been a flop. The six-year-old Health Flex program has drawn only about 2,300 people, mostly in three counties that offer subsidies to help the working poor pay the premiums.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says subsidies make all the difference. About two-thirds of uninsured Americans have incomes below 200 percent of the poverty line - about $35,200 for a family of three - and have no wiggle room for health insurance.

It appears health insurance was just another task on Crist's check-off list, right after solving the problems with property taxes and homeowner's insurance.

What the governor accomplishes in expediency and headlines, he loses in building a solid foundation for solving problems - once and for all.

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