The Alaska Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would legalize subscription-based access to medical providers in an effort to address rising health insurance costs.
Direct health care agreements are a method adopted by several states that lets patients pay a monthly subscription fee to access specified medical care, such as primary care providers or dental care, rather than for a per-service rate. It has been described as both an alternative to traditional health insurance and as a service that can improve health care access for people with high-deductible insurance plans or difficulty accessing certain medical services through their insurance.
Skeptics say the plans are often unaffordable, leading to improved health care access for people who can pay for the service while doing nothing to solve — and potentially exacerbating — the challenges that hinder access for lower-income people and those who depend on Medicaid or Medicare. “I do question whether this bill will increase any access to care or will decrease the cost of care at all, because there truly is nothing in this that would guarantee that,” said Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, an Anchorage Republican, before voting in favor of the bill.
Without the bill, direct care agreements are considered insurance plans, despite the fact that those medical offices are not licensed to offer insurance. Under the bill, the agreements would explicitly be defined as “not insurance,” meaning the division would not be responsible for auditing or reviewing them.
Before the bill’s passage, lawmakers amended it to require any clinics offering direct health care agreements to also accept low-income patients who rely on public health insurance, or set a quota of at least 20% of patients who are either uninsured, enrolled in Medicare or eligible for Medicaid.
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