Two consumer advocacy groups issued a press release this afternoon calling Insurance Commissioner Ted Nickel’s newly identified membership of the health insurance exchange work groups “unacceptable.” Under the Affordable Care Act, states are required to establish health insurance exchanges as an important tool for consumers of all abilities to get health insurance and certain Medicaid/BadgerCare Plus services. To help plan and build the exchange, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) yesterday announced the new “working groups” composed overwhelmingly of insurance industry members. A blog post today by the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health describes the composition of these advisory committees:
“In all of the eight working groups, meant to provide feedback and recommendations to the Commissioner on Exchange development, consumers are greatly outnumbered by industry representatives. The representation is on average, 8:1 in each group. In total, 90% of those on the working groups represent insurers, agents, businesses, or employers.”
The press release this afternoon from Citizen Action of Wisconsin and ABC for Health calls on Commissioner Ted Nickel “to go back to the drawing board” in setting up the working groups and involving the public. They noted:
“An exchange built without meaningful consumer input on rights and protections will do nothing to help consumers and it is no substitute for a strong health plan marketplace that supports consumers in their decisions.”
WCCF shares the concerns that there should be increased public involvement in the state-level implementation of the Affordable Care Act, including meaningful input from working groups that aren’t dominated by represenatives of the insurance industry.
Jon Peacock
