03/27/2005: "Medevac Bill"

By John Evans

There is some significant progress to report in the ongoing effort to get legislation passed in the State legislature that would allow airlift medical flight subscription "insurance" to once again be available to the families of San Juan County. Senator Harriet Spanel's Senate Bill #2005 has passed in the Senate. While the modified bill is not exactly what had been hoped for…at authorizes a study with a report back to the legislature by the end of the year…it is forward progress.

The next step is a hearing on the House side companion bill #1996. This hearing takes place at 8:00 am this Tuesday. Representative Dave Quall is the sponsor of the House bill in close cooperation with Senator Spanel on the Senate side.

Vicki Kirkpatrict, Washington Association of Counties Policy Director for Public Health suggests that citizens make the effort to e mail the members of the House Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee on Monday and encourage their support of House Bill #1996.

The Committee members are as follows: Rep. Steve Kirby, Chair; Rep. Dan Roach, ranking minority rep; Rep. Sharon Tomiko, Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, Rep. Geoff Simpson, Rep. Brendan Williams, Rep. Cary Condotta, Rep Daniel Newhouse and Rep. John Serben. Their e mail address are easy to find on the web site, washingtonvotes.org.

The sole purpose of this effort is to once again allow a local subscription "insurance" program to be reestablished in San Juan County. The program that existed before allowed families, for a $50-$100 annual subscription, to "insure" against the cost of an emergency medical flight for a family member to a mainland emergency room. The cost of such a flight is between $7,000 and $10,000. Even very good general medical insurance policies usually do not cover the full cost of such an emergency flight.

This program used to exist in the islands, but was discontinued when the State Insurance Commissioner demanded that the provider of the subscription service meet all of the extensive, expensive and cumbersome State insurance regulations. Under the guise of protecting the citizens of the State, we have ended up with no program at all. Hopefully the legislative effort that is underway…with special thanks to Senator Spanel, Reprentitive Quall and the Association of Counties, Vicki Kirpatrick…will be successful.

Please do your part. E mail a committee member today.

Thank you.