Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty
Federal intervention in Connecticut’s process for approving insurance rates prompted Florida to reject a $1 million federal grant.
“We will not be drawing down on any of those funds,” Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said Tuesday.
The grant came one from of several programs created by the federal reform bill passed last year. Connecticut received a similar $1 million grant.
McCarty explained his reasoning during a meeting of the Florida Health Insurance Advisory Board. He said he was concerned about “encroachment of state sovereignty” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
McCarty said a letter from an HHS official to then Insurance Commissioner Thomas Sullivan “was fairly invasive with regard to Connecticut’s rate review process.”
“The implication was clear that HHS was going further into the affairs of the State of Connecticut,” McCarty said at the FHIAB meeting.
He also cited the recent decision by a federal judge in Florida that declared the healthcare reform law unconstitutional.
“We put things on hold, did a stock-taking of what was going on, the potential intrusion into the marketplace and, quite frankly, yesterday’s court decision just made the decision that much easier.”
McCarty is president-elect of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. His comments were first reported by National Underwriter Life and Health. The letter to Sullivan was previously reported by the Hartford Courant blog Insurance Capital.
How stupid was it to turn down this money in these terrible economic times. If Texas took theirs, why in the world wouldn’t we in FL have taken it!????