Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 23, 2000
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Locke signs bill to revive individual health insurance market

SEATTLE — Gov. Gary Locke today signed a bill intended to revive Washington's health insurance market for individuals – a plan negotiated with key lawmakers and industry officials over two legislative sessions.

"It took us two sessions to get here, but get here we did, and I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am," Locke said of the bipartisan measure.

Locke said the legislation reflects three basic conditions he set at the start of negotiations last year:

Bring private insurers back into the individual market;

Provide incentives so people will buy—and keep—health insurance;

Ensure access to affordable individual coverage.

"What this bill says, more than anything, is that in order for our health insurance system to work, it must be allowed to operate like an insurance system," the governor said. "Our insurers must be allowed to have rules in place that encourage people to sign up for insurance before they need medical care, not after."

But the governor stressed that the new law also contains important safeguards to ensure that Washington individuals can get the insurance they need for themselves and their families.

"It contains the guarantee that people turned away by private insurers can always get coverage through the Washington State Health Insurance Pool," Locke said.

"And the legislation recognizes the special needs of those older and sicker individuals and if you're between 50 and 64, you can get financial help to pay the higher premiums of the pool," the governor said.

Locke also said he was pleased with provisions that "support healthy mothers and healthy babies" by requiring that all comprehensive individual plans provide maternity coverage.

Among the bill's major provisions:

- Mandates that maternity and prescription drug benefits be offered in all comprehensive individual plans.
- Guarantees insurance coverage, at a higher cost, through the Washington State Health Insurance Plan for those denied coverage by private insurers.
- Allows private insurers to deny coverage to no more than 8 percent of those who apply.
- Provides premium assistance to low-income people aged 50-64 who must enroll in the state plan.
- Clarifies portability rights, or the right to move from one plan to another.
- Increases from three months to nine the period under which a new enrollee in the individual or small group market must wait before receiving coverage for a pre-existing medical condition.
- Increases from three months to six the same waiting period for those who sign up for the Washington State Health Insurance Pool.
- Expands eligibility for the state's Basic Health Plan to people living at 250 percent of the federal poverty level.

The governor noted that he signed the law at a time when individuals in 36 of 39 counties cannot buy individual polices at any price. "The insurance industry has told us they need this legislation to do business again in these counties. We are counting on the industry to quickly return to the market," he said.

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