CONNECTICUT:
The House of Representatives last week joined the Senate in overriding
the Governor's veto of their campaign finance overhaul bill.
However, there's still an injunction in force that was imposed by U.S.
District Court Judge Stefan Underhill on August 11 against all portions
of Connecticut's law that were deemed unconstitutional by the Second
Circuit. It is expected that the state will swiftly file a motion for
relief from the injunction. Campaign finance law in Connecticut will not
move forward until the District Court lifts its injunction, as
anticipated, in the coming weeks.
OKLAHOMA: At a recent hearing before Oklahoma Supreme Court Referee Barbara Swimley, an attorney for state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland challenged a new law that will levy a 1 percent fee on health care claims. Holland's attorney described the bill as one that had nothing to do with insurance, but instead was designed to help raise money for the state and balance the state budget. He also argued that the legislature did not follow the constitutional process in passing the bill. The state's constitution requires all revenue-raising measures to either pass the Oklahoma legislature by a three-fourths vote or be submitted to state voters for approval. The attorney for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority argued that the court could use the presumptive argument that all legislation passed by the Oklahoma legislature and signed into law is constitutional. Commissioner Holland's legal challenge now rests with the Court, which must decide whether to uphold the law or strike it down as unconstitutional. Referee Swimley promised that court officials would make a decision about the case "soon." The bill is slated to take effect August 26, 2010, with the first payment of the fee due October 31.
TEXAS: The presidents of the University of Texas system's six health-related universities last week publicly listed their worries about millions of uninsured Texans becoming covered in 2014 under the country's sweeping new health care law: not enough doctors, too little money from government health care programs and fewer commercial insurers to cushion financial losses as they do now. The Chair of the Health Affairs Committee predicted that the changes will impact the UT system "significantly," possibly threatening the health institutions' funding for research and academics. They cited a loss of federal and state money for facilities that care for a large share of low-income and uninsured patients as the key culprit. They also fear that many people who are currently uninsured and who begin buying insurance in 2014 will buy the cheapest insurance they can get. The presidents worry that the result will be fewer commercial insurers, which now absorb some of the costs and help hospitals make up for low payments from Medicaid. But they stopped short of characterizing the law as a negative and called it the "new normal" instead. The six schools plan to find more efficient ways to care for patients, including the use of more nurse practitioners http://www.easytoinsureme.com/. End of update
OKLAHOMA: At a recent hearing before Oklahoma Supreme Court Referee Barbara Swimley, an attorney for state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland challenged a new law that will levy a 1 percent fee on health care claims. Holland's attorney described the bill as one that had nothing to do with insurance, but instead was designed to help raise money for the state and balance the state budget. He also argued that the legislature did not follow the constitutional process in passing the bill. The state's constitution requires all revenue-raising measures to either pass the Oklahoma legislature by a three-fourths vote or be submitted to state voters for approval. The attorney for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority argued that the court could use the presumptive argument that all legislation passed by the Oklahoma legislature and signed into law is constitutional. Commissioner Holland's legal challenge now rests with the Court, which must decide whether to uphold the law or strike it down as unconstitutional. Referee Swimley promised that court officials would make a decision about the case "soon." The bill is slated to take effect August 26, 2010, with the first payment of the fee due October 31.
TEXAS: The presidents of the University of Texas system's six health-related universities last week publicly listed their worries about millions of uninsured Texans becoming covered in 2014 under the country's sweeping new health care law: not enough doctors, too little money from government health care programs and fewer commercial insurers to cushion financial losses as they do now. The Chair of the Health Affairs Committee predicted that the changes will impact the UT system "significantly," possibly threatening the health institutions' funding for research and academics. They cited a loss of federal and state money for facilities that care for a large share of low-income and uninsured patients as the key culprit. They also fear that many people who are currently uninsured and who begin buying insurance in 2014 will buy the cheapest insurance they can get. The presidents worry that the result will be fewer commercial insurers, which now absorb some of the costs and help hospitals make up for low payments from Medicaid. But they stopped short of characterizing the law as a negative and called it the "new normal" instead. The six schools plan to find more efficient ways to care for patients, including the use of more nurse practitioners http://www.easytoinsureme.com/. End of update
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