GUEST COLUMN BY JOHN EVANS

Hearing March 19 on medflight subscriptions

posted 03/28/05
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 5736 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 am this Tuesday, March 29, 2005. Representative Dave Quall is the sponsor of the House bill in close cooperation with Senator Spanel on the Senate side.

Vicki Kirkpatrick, 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 Santos
  
  
• Rep. Shay Schual-Berke
  
  
• Rep. Geoff Simpson
  
  
• Rep. Brendan Williams
  
  
• Rep. Cary Condotta,
  
  
• Rep Daniel Newhouse
  
  
• Rep. John Serben.

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, Representative Quall and the Association of Counties, Vicki Kirpatrick…will be successful. Please do your part. E mail a committee member today.

Thank you.

John Evans
Doe Bay

Support legislation to allow medevac subscriptions

posted 02/07/05
Those of us who have lived in the islands for awhile remember when we were able to pay an annual subscription fee of between $50 and $100 for the emergency helicopter service that operated from Bellingham’s St Joseph’s Hospital. This was cheap "insurance" for our families if a family member needed an emergency medical flight to the mainland. Cost of a single emergency flight these days ranges between $7,000 and $10,000.

This subscription service was discontinued when the State of Washington determined that this arrangement didn’t meet the State’s insurance laws. Meeting the insurance law requirements was so involved and expensive that St. Josephs Hospital and Airlift Northwest discontinued the subscription arrangement.

A number of us on Orcas Island have been working with our legislators to see if an exemption from the insurance regulations can be crafted that would allow reinstatement of this subscription service.

Senator Harriet Spanel has introduced Senate Bill #5736 that would exempt private ambulance services from the insurance code and allow them to accept membership applications, charge a membership fee and furnish pre-paid or discounted ambulance services, including both air and ground ambulance services to subscription members and designated family members.

I would encourage all of us to contact Senator Spanel’s office and ask how we can help support her efforts to gain passage of this bill. The easiest way to send a message is to bring up the web site www.washingtonvotes.org and follow the directions to send Senator Spanel a supporting e mail. It would be good to send alerts to our Representatives, Jeff Morris and Dave Quall, as well and ask them to support this bill on the House side.

Reinstatement of this subscription service is a good thing for all of us, even if you have private medical insurance or Medicare. For the large number of our citizens who can’t afford medical insurance, this subscription service option is critical.

Thank you for listening.

John Evans

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