The Committee also approved a bill introduced by Senator White to give the Department of Insurance additional oversight power on health insurance company mergers, as well as a bill to help prevent insurance company insolvencies.

Senate Bill 548, introduced by Senator Jake Corman, would create the Long-Term Care (LTC) Partnership Program, which would provide a financial incentive for individuals to buy LTC insurance. The measure is intended to give people the opportunity to protect their personal assets by buying the insurance.

"Currently, individuals have to spend down their assets before Medicaid steps in to cover the costs of long-term care," Senator Corman said. "What happens is people typically divest themselves of their assets before going into long-term care and Medicaid often ends up footing the entire bill.

"Under the LTC Partnership Program, individuals would be allowed to retain an amount equal to the amount of long-term care insurance they hold'" Senator Corman continued. "Therefore, as an example, a person who has a $100,000 policy would be entitled to keep $100,000 in assets when Medicaid steps in. That means Medicaid would realize savings of $100,000, based on the amount paid by the policy, and the individual would be able to keep $100,000."

Senator White's bill, Senate Bill 550, would give the Insurance Department oversight power over mergers involving non-profit health care insurers, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The Department already has oversight power over mergers involving for-profit companies.

"This follows the Commonwealth's practice of doing as much as possible to encourage and promote competitiveness in the health care insurance market." Senator White said. "Giving the Department this oversight power is an important step in ensuring that mergers of these companies don't result in a virtual monopoly in the industry."

Senate Bill 222, introduced by Senator Michael Stack, would establish a "trend test" as a way to give the Department of Insurance more time to help Property and Casualty Insurers prevent insolvency.

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