Health-care 'swing out' sparks debate

A legislative measure approved Thursday will either increase health-care choice or health-care costs, depending on who was testifying on which side of the hotly contested bill.

SB66, sponsored by Sen. Michael Waddoups, R-West Jordan, would require Utah health insurers to offer plans with a "swing-out option" to allow consumers to visit providers outside their network.

Patients would be responsible for extra costs associated with the swing-out option.

"There's some very important policy reasons to support this," Waddoups told members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. "It creates choice and access to providers for the patients and citizens of Utah."

For that reason, he said, SB66 is "putting insurance companies and hospitals into a real stir. They feel this bill will end the world as we know it today."

Representatives from the Utah Health Insurance Association and Utah Hospital Association did speak against the measure Thursday, arguing it will increase health-care costs by eliminating the discounts insurers are able to create by sending large volume of patients to specific doctors and hospitals.

"This directability impacts your discounts," said Kelly Atkinson with the insurance association. "If you're buying one 2-by-4, you're going to pay higher than buying 1,000 2-by-4s."

The possibility of an increased financial burden on small businesses has led to opposition to SB66 from the Utah Manufacturers Association and the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce.

"When you start requiring the kinds of things that this bill does then you raise the cost," said Tom Bingham of the Utah Manufacturers Association.

Waddoups and committee members, two of whom are co-sponsors of the legislation, largely dismissed opponents' claims.

"The system is broken," Waddoups said. "Costs are going up, hospitals and insurance industry need to be part of the solution."

SB66 is being pushed by the Utah Ambulatory Surgical Center Association, which has long claimed that free-standing surgery centers are being edged out of the market by the big health-care networks and the Utah Medical Association.

Michael Abrams, a pediatric ophthalmologist and a member of the association's board of directors, said the bill addresses access to affordable health care is being restricted by corporate interests.