RICHMONDGov. Bob McDonnell, an outspoken critic of the federal health care overhaul passed by Congress, has appointed an advisory council to develop strategies for implementing it.
McDonnell on Monday named the 24 members of his Virginia Health Reform Initiative Advisory Council, assembling a group that includes hospital and insurance executives, business leaders, state officials and legislators from both parties. The group will help chart a plan for implementing the complex federal health care overhaul even as Virginia wages a court battle to overturn a key provision of the new law.
The panel will hold its first meetings this weekend in Roanoke.
Virginia has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a provision of the health care act that will require individuals to buy health insurance or pay a penalty to the government. But the court fight could drag on for years. In the meantime, McDonnell said, the health care bill "is the law of the land."
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced Monday that Virginia will get a $1 million federal grant to improve its process for reviewing health insurance premium filings. The state's Bureau of Insurance will conduct targeted audits of insurers with the largest market share or those requesting the largest premium increases to determine whether changes are needed in the existing rate review process. The grant also will pay for technology upgrades.
McDonnell called the federal law "dizzying" and said the state has work to do to prepare for its full implementation in 2014. But the governor also wants the panel to look beyond the federal law and devise state approaches to improving health care services, reducing costs and addressing work force shortage issues.
"I'm hoping that this can be a model that other states can use..." McDonnell said.
One of the council's major tasks will be developing recommendations to contain the rapidly escalating costs of Medicaid, the state and federal program that serves the poor, elderly and disabled. McDonnell said the program has become the second-fastest growing expenditure in the Virginia budget, and spending likely will increase because of new eligibility standards in the federal law.
The group is expected to deliver initial recommendations to McDonnell by December. Secretary of Health and Human Resources Bill Hazel will chair the council.
Other members include Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, a pharmacist and senior member of the House Appropriations Committee; Jim Carlson, the chairman and chief executive officer of Amerigroup, the Virginia Beach-based managed care company; and Chuck Hall, the executive director of the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board.
Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania County, also a council member, said he hopes the group can craft consensus solutions and "rise above the partisan fray" that clouded debate over the federal health care law.
"This gives us an opportunity in Virginia to take all that partisanship and put it in the closet, lay it aside and come together and work on a common issue that affects all Virginians," Houck said.
Government has to take major steps for the implementation of the health care law. By which the people can easily take care of their health
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