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MONTANA: Governor Brian Schweitzer has decided to reconsider his amendatory veto of legislation that prohibits the state from enforcing the individual responsibility requirement contained in the ACA.  Noting the critical role that the individual mandate plays in lowering the cost of coverage, the Governor's amendatory veto argued that the prohibition against enforcing the mandate in Montana should be contingent on whether residents have access to affordable coverage.  However, on May 13, the Governor reversed his position and signed the bill into law, as permitted under Montana's statutory procedural guidelines.  The provisions of the law include legislative findings stating that the ACA individual coverage requirement will cause unnecessary expense and inconvenience to individuals and employers, and therefore the legislature prohibits any agency of the state from enforcing the provisions of the ACA and subsequent federal regulations that relate to the individual coverage requirement. The law specifies that the prohibition extends to requiring public employees to purchase or maintain coverage and state officials or employees from participating in boards, commissions, or entities of the NAIC that are assigned to recommend provisions that implement the individual mandate.

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NEVADA: HHS informed the Nevada Division of Insurance that the state's application for a transitional waiver from the MLR provisions contained in the ACA has been denied and amended.

In its response letter, HHS admits that application of the ACA MLR standard could in fact lead to destabilization of the state's individual market but argues that the transitional waiver requested by the state (72 percent) exceeds the amount necessary to prevent destabilization and would ‘deny consumers an excessive amount of benefit.'  For this reason, HHS determined that Nevada should be granted a one-year transitional waiver under which the MLR for the state's individual market will be 75 percent in 2011.

SB 440, which would create the Silver State Exchange, had its first hearing on March 18 in the Finance Committee, but no action to advance the measure was taken.

NEW JERSEY: Last week the Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI) announced that Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has officially withdrawn its application to convert to a for-profit entity.

In the final round of public budget hearings, the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services (OLS) and State Treasurer, Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff, testified that state revenue is now expected to exceed forecast by $600 to $900 million due to higher income tax collection. This was welcome news as the legislature and the Christie Administration wrestle with various program cuts under the current budget proposal. Leadership in the legislature has called for restoration of property tax rebates and reconsideration of the proposed changes to the Medicaid program.  It has been reported the Administration is seeking to change Medicaid eligibility to 33 percent of the federal poverty level. Democratic legislators have come out en masse opposing this change.

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