The Pennsylvania Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a series of bills to expand access and health insurance coverage, part of the 15-bill HealthNET PA legislative package.

The bills now go to the full Senate for action.

Jake Corman

One bill (Senate Bill 189), introduced by Committee Chairman Sen. Jake Corman (R-Centre), would extend health insurance coverage to adult dependent children up to the age of 30.

Another bill (Senate Bill 442), introduced by Sen. Don White (R-Indiana), would extend the COBRA guidelines to group plans of businesses with 2-19 employees, and a third bill (Senate Bill 443), also introduced by White, would allow health insurers to withhold payment to providers in the event of a medical error.

The dependent child bill would apply to adult dependent children who are not married, have no dependents, are residents of the commonwealth or enrolled as a full-time student at an institution of higher education and are not provided insurance coverage or eligible for government benefits. Insurers would be able to determine increases in the premium to cover this additional benefit, which would be paid by the policyholder.

“Looking at the demographics in Pennsylvania, the largest segment of the uninsured are young adults age 18 to 34,” Corman said in a statement. “This legislation would provide an option that would enable some of those young adults to receive the benefits of health insurance coverage.”

Also, Senate Bill 237, sponsored by Corman, received committee approval. It would regulate the purchase or exchange of an annuity based on recommendations made to a consumer by an insurer. The bill also ensures that information filed by stock and mutual insurance companies, associations and exchanges remains confidential.

The HealthNET PA package includes legislation to develop or expand health care clinics across Pennsylvania, by providing “medical homes” for 175,000 working-poor clients and ease pressure on hospital emergency rooms, according to the committee. The package would expand access to health care and medicine to more than 500,000 uninsured and low-income working Pennsylvanians. It would utilize information technology to control costs and reduce health care-associated infections, and provide expanded insurance options for employers and families, and will incorporate the concepts of disease prevention and wellness, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The committee also approved Senate Bill 89, a measure sponsored by Senator Pat Vance (R-Cumberland) to re-enact the Health Care Cost Containment Act and re-establish the Health Care Cost Containment Council Act Review Committee with a new sunset date of June 30, 2014.