Authorizes all municipalities to join a county self-funded or self-insured health plan

Showing the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.

• Democratic16
• Republican13

This bill has cosponsors from more than one party.

Shown in neutral colors by design; Agora is non-partisan.

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Patricia Fahy says this is needed

The New York State Association of Counties, the New York Association of Towns, the New York Council of Mayors, and Albany and Schenectady coun- ties support the bill. Requests for reform have increased following discussions that resulted from the Governor's municipal consolidation initiative. Health insurers are already preparing for the inevitability of self-in- surance plans by establishing departments to support them. The role of the private insurer is reduced: it no longer handles plan funds or profits from them, but it is still needed for claims processing and is permitted to charge fees for that. The revised bill was developed after discussion with the Department of Financial Services (DFS) and self-insurance consultants who serve muni- cipalities and counties. DFS does not regulate self-insured plans. Therefore, DFS favors the formation of municipal consortia pursuant to Article 47 of the Insurance Law. However, Article 47 has deterred the formation of municipal health insurance consortia due to the time and cost involved in seeking DFS approval, to such an extent that only one county self-insured plan has formed a consortium that incorporates constituent municipalities. This law allows municipalities to join county self-insured health plans so long as certain criteria are met, criteria which DFS would typically require in the formation of a consortium. Thus, the bill furthers a DFS goal of enhancing the financial stability of county self-insured health plans by ensuring that specific requirements are met before munici- palities can admit additional municipalities into the plan, while at the same time guaranteeing municipalities access to a self-insured plan without having to create one from scratch. The financial requirements outlined in this amended version of the legislation are based on infor- mation from counties regarding what the Division of Financial Services has historically required of municipal health insurance cooperatives. Since self-insured health plans offer the greatest array of benefits at the lowest cost, allowing municipalities to join them will benefit taxpayers and municipal employees alike. Municipalities of various kinds, including school districts, have publicly expressed concern that rising health insurance costs are unsustainable under the tax cap. This bill gives them one tool to keep health insurance costs under control.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.