Austin Scott Introduces Military Gap Insurance Amendment—Then John Garamendi Chimes In

5 months ago

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing in July, Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) introduced an amendment regarding gap insurance. Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) objected on the grounds that the policies would be regulated state-by-state.

Transcript

00:00We will now consider log number 5579R1 by Mr. Scott. For what purposes the gentleman from

00:08Georgia seek recognition? Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk. Will the clerk please

00:12distribute the amendment without objection? The reading of the amendment is dispensed with. The

00:16chair now recognizes the gentleman from Georgia for the purpose of explaining his amendment.

00:20Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This amendment is in effect the text of the Bipartisan Salute Act

00:25introduced by Representative Brian Jack and Shamari Figures. It has 25 additional

00:31bipartisan co-sponsors including several on this committee. It would establish a

00:36pilot program to provide military families the option to purchase a low-cost

00:39department-approved cancer supplemental plan to help pay out-of-pocket expenses in

00:44the event of a cancer diagnosis. The department has acknowledged in writing

00:50and we all know that service members must sometimes pay out-of-pocket for health

00:54care expenses as we all do. This would be supplemental coverage to TRICARE. At the

01:03end of the pilot program the department report back with data on the program. If

01:07successful it could be continued. If not the program would sunset. I would ask your

01:15favorable consideration of it and again this there would be the department would be

01:22authorized to competitively bid two contracts to vendors to provide low-cost policies just

01:26like TRICARE's setup is. Military families could choose to enroll through the department's

01:30normal online benefits portal. Terms, benefits, and conditions would be spelled out by the

01:35department in a simple objective manner. If covered a family member diagnosed with cancer,

01:41a direct benefit would be provided to immediately help cover out-of-pocket expenses as they are

01:45incurred. And with that Mr. Chairman it is pretty simple. It's a product that's offered probably in

01:52the vast majority of medium and large private sector employers and this would simply start a pilot

01:59program to offer it to our military families. With that I yield. Deneman yields back chair and I recognize

02:05the ranking member. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I have concerns with this amendment. Basically it provides gap

02:12insurance and as I understand it several insurance companies want to offer a specific gap insurance

02:18program to military service members and their families. What I've heard from the department there's

02:25considerable dispute about how much this gap insurance would cover that's not already covered and the

02:32other aspect of this that is in this is not just to offer it but in the and forgive me I did not serve so

02:38I haven't filled out all of the forms but when you go through the normal form process this amendment would

02:44require there to be a box where the each member would have to affirmatively service member would look

02:50at it and decide whether or not they wanted this insurance which is kind of like pushing the insurance

02:55on the member putting it on the service member putting it in front of them so you know really want to

03:02make sure we're not encouraging members to buy insurance that they don't need. Now if they want to

03:08offer this plan that's fine I don't see why the military has to basically offer it for them

03:16as I understand it I don't think we do this with other insurance so I think the net result of this

03:22was you will be forcing members to you know they will have to make a decision on this as they sign up

03:28and if it's on the form it kind of implies that the military thinks it's something that you ought to

03:32consider so I am concerned about this resulting in basically service members paying for something they don't need.

03:39Um so I am opposed to the amendment I understand it is in all likelihood going to pass and we can

03:45talk about how to work on this going forward um but I don't want to benefit insurance companies at

03:51the expense of service members and their families because there's nothing to stop a service member

03:56right now from buying gap insurance if they want to buy gap insurance there's nothing to stop the

04:00insurance companies from offering a plan specifically to service members this is us kind of giving our

04:06statutory stamp of approval to it and having the department of defense also give its stamp of

04:11approval to it uh by putting the option in front of members to purchase it and that I don't support

04:19I yield back.

04:20The gentleman yields back does any other member wish to speak on the amendment?

04:25The gentleman from Nebraska Mr. Bacon.

04:26Thank you Mr. Chairman I'm going to support this legislation it doesn't cost a taxpayer

04:30dime and I've met people who have needed this coverage they've had to travel and pay out of

04:35pocket to go to a different hospital to get cancer treatment and I think we should be very

04:40clear to address the the ranking members concerns that say the military is not pushing this it's

04:46it's just an option for people to consider but I have known folks who had cancer they have to pay

04:51out of pocket to travel and do other expenses not necessarily that the cancer care may be provided

04:56but there's all these additional expenses and that's what we're trying to do here. I yield.

05:01Gentleman yields back. Gentleman of California's Recognizement. Gary Mindy.

05:07After eight years as insurance commissioner I usually wake up in the morning and swear

05:11never to engage in that conversation again however Mr. Scott you have tickled my memory here

05:19and I think the issue that the ranking member raised is that these policies can and should be available

05:29to members. I do notice that you have in your amendment requirements that the insurance that is

05:38being sold is available in every state and therefore arguably regulated by that state. Insurance being

05:46regulated state by state. That's a difficult thing to achieve but it's extremely important in this

05:52case because these people are moving around. I think that you may have gone a step too far by bringing

06:00the military into making the decision of which insurance companies will be able to sell their policies

06:08to the civilian and military members. That is a very heavy obligation of the military to basically regulate

06:24the insurance companies. I think that Mr. Bacon was on to something as was Mr. Smith that these gap

06:34policies are probably useful in many of these families and individuals for reasons that have already been

06:41articulated but I think that what we may want to do here is to open the door to companies to sell these

06:49policies on the base and let the regulatory regimes of that particular state cover that sales program.

06:59I will tell you from my experience regulating the insurance company is a huge task and choosing an

07:06insurance company that is sound does good payment of claims quick and full it is a very difficult task

07:16and one that I don't know that the military should be doing but rather making these policies available

07:22would be a good idea. So let's work on this. I know what you're trying to do but I think you may be doing

07:28in a way that is going to create a whole hassle. So with that I yield back.

07:35Gentleman yields. Does anybody else wish to speak? Mr. Davis, North Carolina.

07:40Thanks so much Mr. Chair and to the ranking member. I want to start by saying that I truly

07:46I'm here loud and clear the concerns raised by the ranking member and I also want to acknowledge that

07:53there have been several of those including myself that's been a part of this the SLUT Act and at the

08:00end of the day we want to do anything possible to help especially those who may be dealing with cancer

08:07diagnosis. So what I would simply say I'm just listening to the tone and that is

08:14as we can continue to explore this as options are supplemental options are made available

08:22and this again looking at it from a pilot perspective can continue to be a valuable option.

08:32I think it's you know definitely worth seeing if we can work out and figure it out moving forward.

08:37So I just wanted to share that and thank you and yes some of us have been working on this trying

08:44to figure it out. So thank you Mr. Scott. I thank the gentleman he yields back. Chair and I recognize

08:49Mr. Whitman of Virginia. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I yield my time to the gentleman from Georgia Mr. Scott.

08:55Thank you and so prior to being a member of Congress I was actually an insurance broker for

09:00about two decades and licensed in multiple states including the state of California and the reason

09:09you don't want it to be an individual contract the reason you want it to be a group contract instead

09:14of an individual contract is because the consumer gets significantly more for the same number of

09:19dollars. So if you open the gates and you let agents go in and sell individual contracts to the

09:25different members a couple of things happen there. One is some agents aren't necessarily

09:30good. Most of them are but some would sell people more than they could afford. I don't want that to

09:36happen here. But two is if you're doing this with this volume that this would allow for you're going

09:46to get a significantly better price than you would if you were selling the individual contracts like you

09:53would sell at a four person or five person or maybe even a ten person business. So it's an opportunity.

10:00If it doesn't work it can be stopped. I do think we can make it work and I do want to explain that one

10:08of the key differences in this contract these contracts and what you get with TRICARE. TRICARE pays

10:14the health care provider. But there's a tremendous number of expenses sometimes hotel bills, gas fuel,

10:21travel bills, babysitters, all of the other expenses that come when someone is sick that your major medical

10:27and your TRICARE is not going to cover and this is simply an option to help people cover some of those

10:33expenses with what I think will be an exceptionally cost-effective product if it's offered to this

10:42volume of people instead of individual contracts. With that I yield back.

10:45The gentleman yields back and I would like to emphasize what Mr. Davis was saying and that is

10:50this is a pilot program. This is how you work the bugs out by having a pilot program. So I just don't

10:55really see the reason to oppose this. Anybody else wish to speak? If there's no further debate the

11:03question occurs on the amendment offered by Mr. Scott. So many of you who are in favor will say aye.

11:08Those opposed no. The ayes have it.

Austin Scott Introduces Military Gap Insurance Amendment—Then John Garamendi Chimes In

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