THEY KNEW! 2009 Brief Advised Against Healthcare Exchange for RI
They Knew!
Ignoring the advice of her own specially convened study process, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts became one of the leading figures in promoting a complex, costly health insurance exchange for Rhode Island. Further,
HealthSourceRI officials and supporters continue to tout a cost containment goal that the process advised is not achievable according to a little known 2009 Issue Brief provide to Ms. Roberts and other state officials! Our Center’s analysis of this Brief can be downloaded by clicking the button below:
MEDIA RELEASE, June 3, 2014: Specifically advised “Do not pursue” in 2009 by her own specially convened study group, regarding formation of a state-based health insurance exchange, as it would not be fiscally viable and would not meet its primary objective of cost containment, Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts of Rhode Island nevertheless pressed for the formation of a state-run ACA exchange and has remained one of its most outspoken advocates. This according to the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a nonpartisan think tank, which today published an analysis of a little known Issues Brief funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and presented to state officials years ago.
“There has never been a rigorous public debate about the pros and cons of a state-funded exchange for the Ocean State. With tens of millions of dollars now at stake, we need a renewed discussion today,” commented Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center, referring to the abbreviated process that saw related legislation fail in the General Assembly in the spring of 2011, only to have the exchange authorized without advance public scrutiny later that fall by Executive Order of the Governor. “Revelation of this Brief raises many questions. Why was this information not brought to light in 2011? Why do State and HealthSourceRI officials continue to tout claims that their own study advised are not feasible? We must have answers to these questions before we spend $15 million in next year’s budget.”
The findings in the Brief validate many of the specific concerns raised by the Center in recent reports. In additional to clearly indicating that the study group’s number one preferred objective – to drive down healthcare costs – was not achievable via a state exchange, the 2009 document also advised that Rhode Island’s economy was not strong enough, that there was not a large enough insured population, nor was their a complex enough insurance provider/product market that required coordination, to justify the “establishment of a new administrative structure” to operate an exchange. Further, the Brief advised that because of these characteristics a “health insurance exchange may not generate sufficient volume to be cost-effective.”
“As a state, we are now facing the precise sustainability problems that our Center projected two years ago, that this Brief advised against five years ago, and that has been empirically supported by results from Massachusetts for the past six years,” added Stenhouse. “The small business sector in our state has been deceived into supporting a massive bureaucracy that, sadly, will not reduce their health insurance costs.”
Links to other related information about this issue, including two reports by the Center and a Forbes.com analysis, can be found on the Center’s home page for the health exchange issue at RIFreedom.org/Exchange.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!