Economic Woes Help Shape AARP Texas' 2009 Legislative Agenda

by Bob Jackson, State Director, AARP Texas

By: State: Texas | Source: AARP.org

As the economic recession deepens and job stability deteriorates, fears grow that more Texas families could be pushed to the brink of financial ruin, due to medical, energy and property insurance bills and other financial commitments they simply can't afford.
 
Take health care for starters. While Texas is blessed with world-class health care facilities, more than a quarter of its population is uninsured, dead last in the nation according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As ranked by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Texas homeowner insurance rates are the highest of any state. The experiment with electricity deregulation has failed millions of consumers and the state's long-term care delivery system remains fraught with inefficiency.
 
These are some of the key issues that AARP and its army of volunteers will take to state lawmakers when the new legislative session opens in January. While AARP Texas can't match the resources of well-financed industry lobbyists in Austin, it does have the power of a 2.4 million membership in the state.
 
Health care reform is likely to move up in priority with a new administration in Washington. Texas doesn't have the luxury of waiting for Congress to act. This year, along with other organizations, AARP is capitalizing on the Texas Department of Insurance's "Sunset" review—a top-to-bottom examination that agencies go through every 12 years—to seek improvements in the private insurance market.
 
For many Texans without employer coverage, purchasing insurance in the individual market is neither possible nor affordable today. We'll be working with legislators to improve the availability and affordability in the individual and small group market and to strengthen the high risk pool—the insurer of last resort for Texans with pre-existing conditions who cannot get private coverage. Premiums in the high risk pool must be made more affordable and the waiting period for pre-existing conditions reduced from as much as 12 months today.

As our population ages, our long-term care delivery system will become more important and demand more attention. Poor quality remains an issue with nursing homes, and Texas rightfully prides itself in moving people out of institutional care and into the community. However, it would be a significant improvement to place them in the right setting in the first place. AARP will propose a pilot program centered on a single point of entry for people seeking long-term care. A single point of entry would allow consumers to go to one agency for information and referrals, and then to apply for the right services for them.

Properly designed, a single point of entry can be consumer friendly, cost-effective for taxpayers and compassionate for users and their families. While working on revamping Texas' current system, our state must continue making progress in reducing the waiting list for community care. More than 28,000 Texas senior and persons with disabilities are still on the waiting list.

Another way to reduce the impact of the economic bust on Texas families is by making the cost of homeownership more affordable and eliminating the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' distinction of Texas homeowners paying the highest homeowners insurance rates in the nation. Current economic conditions coupled with the impact of Hurricane Ike on coastal areas have shined the spotlight on this key pocketbook issue. AARP will work with legislators to implement a system where the insurance commissioner must approve and review rates before they go into effect, replacing the current system where rates are first implemented and then reviewed by the commissioner.

Finally, AARP will work to reduce the high cost of electricity in deregulated areas of the state. The deregulation of the electricity market in Texas, seven years in the making, has failed. Until elected officials have the political will to really fix electricity deregulation, we'll work to standardize the language in contracts to make them easier for consumers to understand and push for greater transparency in the state's wholesale power markets. Currently, much of this information is kept confidential and only released in masked form after a delay of several months. Giving the public prompt access to this data would help to prevent manipulation in the market, which ends up costing consumers money.