Greetings from the Gold Dome!  Today, marked the 11^th Legislative Day for the 2003 Session.  The day was rather short as Legislators did not convene until 1:00 p.m.   This will be a short work week with Budget hearings to be held on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.   

HB 220 – Rep. Channell's amendment to the timely payment law in the Insurance Code, amending O.C.G.A. § 33-24-59.5, has been forwarded to the House Insurance Committee for review.   This proposes not to allow interest penalties, paid by insurers to hospitals or physicians, to apply towards the cap on benefits payable under the policy.  

HB 228 – This is Rep. Borders' Bill which changes the sales tax holiday legislation passed in 2002 so that the exemption provided in O.C.G.A. § 48-8-3 (75) shall apply only to sales from 12:01 a.m. on the first Thursday of August and concluding at 12:00 Midnight on the first Sunday of August each year.  In an effort to move this sales tax proposal along, a motion to engross this bill was made on Friday.  Items covered by this exemption are:   

"(i) Articles of clothing and footwear with a sales price of $100.00 or less per article of clothing or pair of footwear, excluding accessories such as jewelry, handbags, umbrellas, items intended primarily for use as athletic or sporting gear, eyewear, watches, and watchbands;
(ii) Single purchases of personal computers and personal computer related accessories and software with a sales price of $1500 or less purchased for noncommercial home or personal use, including personal computer base units and keyboards, personal digital assistants, handheld computers, monitors, other peripheral devices, modems for Internet and network access, and non-recreational software, whether or not they are to be utilized in association with the personal computer base unit. Computer and computer related accessories shall not include furniture and any systems, devices, software, or peripherals designed or intended primarily for recreational use; and
(iii) Noncommercial purchases of general school supplies to be utilized in the classroom or in classroom related activities, such as homework, up to a sales price of $20.00 including pens, pencils, notebooks, paper, book bags, calculators, dictionaries, and thesauruses, and children's books and books listed on approved school reading lists for kindergarten through twelfth grade."  

HB 259 – Rep. Channell has also introduced another bill concerning timely payment of health benefits.  It is a duplicate of HB 220 as noted above, also amending O.C.G.A. § 33-24-59.5(c).  It states:  "Each insurer shall pay to the insured or other person claiming payments under the health benefit plan interest equal to 18 percent per annum on the proceeds or benefits due under the terms of such plan for failure to comply with subsection (b) of this Code section.  No amount of any such interest penalty shall be applied toward any cap on benefits payable to the insured or other person claiming payments under the health benefit plan."

Committee News  

House Banks and Banking Committee  

          In an effort to compromise, meetings had been held to work out some of the lending community's concerns relating to the current Fair Lending Act and to react to the consumer support for the bill.  Today, it would appear those efforts caved as proposed new language  was not included in the bill which the Committee passed.  

Senate Insurance and Labor Committee  

          In a packed Committee meeting, SB 50 was presented to Chairman Lamutt and his Committee.  There were more than 20 persons who testified about the proposed Georgia Consumer Choice of Benefits Health Insurance Plan Act.  The Bill proposes to allow employers to choose group and individual health insurance plans which are more affordable and flexible than standard market policies of accident and sickness insurance.  This is an effort to increase the availability of health insurance coverage and lower the numbers of uninsured.  The question really was affordability.  A number of groups including the Jr. League of Atlanta , Women's Feminist Health Center , American Cancer Society, St. Joseph 's Hospital , Georgia Optometric Association, Georgia Breast Cancer Coalition and others testified in opposition to SB 50.  Many believe that passage of such would negatively impact women and children, whose issues most of the insurance mandates passed by the Georgia General Assembly in the last few years address (these include such things as the length of stay for mastectomy procedures, "drive by" delivery of babies, cancer clinical trials for children, contraceptive coverage, etc.).  Proponents argued that the costs of health insurance were rising due to the mandates, which only increases the numbers of uninsured and that some health insurance coverage is better than none.  The Bill would only apply to those employers with 100 or fewer employees. Georgians covered by self-insured plans, Medicaid, and State Health Benefit Plan, which make up 75% of Georgia's population who have insurance, are not impacted by the insurance mandates.  Therefore, only 25% of those with insurance are impacted.    Additionally, NFIB, which is made up of 10,000 small businesses here in Georgia , stated that the cost of insurance is the reason why businesses do not provide insurance to their employees.  There are minimum contribution requirements before employers can participate in healthcare insurance products; many employees get coverage through other means.   

          A Substitute of the Bill was offered and passed without additional amendments. An amendment was proposed by Sen. Schaffer relating to the definition of 'insurer' but the amendment failed.  Sen. Seabaugh committed to working with folks on the definition prior to the time that the Bill is heard on the Senate Floor. The Bill now goes to Rules for consideration.  

House Appropriations' Subcommittee on Human Development  

          A number of advocacy groups testified this afternoon before Chair Gail Buckner's Subcommittee about cuts or feared cuts in particular programs in the Dept. of Human Resources' Budget proposals.  The comments ranged from air ambulances to treatment issues.  This Subcommittee will continue its hearings on Tuesday with information on Block Grants and additional presentations from Departments impacted by this section of the Budget.  

Senate Health and Human Services  

          Sen. Don Cheeks' bill, SB 23, was heard in Committee this afternoon.  This is Sen. Cheeks' version of abortion legislation.  His bill proposes the creation of  "A Woman's Right to Know Act," in Chapter 9 of Title 31.  With some amendments, the Bill passed out of the Committee, even though a number of persons were present who testified about the issue.