A task force's first meeting was free and public. But it was held within a pricey symposium at a high-dollar hotel.
By ALISA ULFERTS
Published October 9, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - A governor's task force studying how to make health insurance more affordable held its first public meeting recently during an insurance symposium at an opulent Miami hotel that cost $200 to attend.
The audience was dominated by insurance interests, and no consumer advocates are on the task force, appointed by the governor in August to recommend changes in state law.
Gov. Jeb Bush chose the symposium for the first task force meeting Sept. 22 because he knew representatives from the insurance industry would be there, a spokeswoman said. The public could attend the task force meeting without paying the $200 fee, said Bush spokeswoman Alia Faraj.
But critics said holding the meeting during a pricey symposium suggests the governor's efforts to curb rising health insurance costs favors insurance companies over consumers.
"You're not going to hear from the people who are having trouble getting insurance," said Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause Florida, a government watchdog.
Social service advocate Karen Woodall of Tallahassee said she worried when she learned the meeting was at the Biltmore, a historic Coral Gables hotel that boasts of "rich tapestries and elegantly upholstered furniture."
"It's not a place where people who are uninsured or underinsured would go," Woodall said.
She was right. Few consumers attended the meeting, which was one of the main items on the symposium's agenda.
Woodall attended the symposium for free. She was one of 101 people, mostly government employees, whose fees were waived. Few people knew waivers were available, she said.
Daniella Levine, for example.
Executive director of the Human Services Coalition in Miami, Levine paid the $200 fee at the door. "There was no discussion about a waiver," Levine said. "I know people personally who didn't come because they couldn't afford to pay."
The symposium was sponsored by the Office of Insurance Regulation, which falls under Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher and the state Cabinet. Bush and Gallagher issued a joint invitation to the symposium, though a Bush spokeswoman said the governor was not involved in it.
To help organize the symposium, the agency turned to Greenberg Traurig, a Miami law firm whose clients include insurance and health care companies. The $200 fees were paid directly to the firm.
Scott Keller, a lobbyist in the firm's Tallahassee office, said a final accounting likely will show the symposium ran a deficit, which Greenberg Traurig or another company will fill. The firm plans to give a final report to the state in a few weeks.
The symposium featured one consumer advocate, a state official who works for the state Department of Financial Services. A session on "consumer-oriented market reforms" was held during the symposium, but critics said the consumers it meant were businesses that buy insurance for their employees.
The governor's task force has 17 members, including Gallagher, Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, state Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, business people, and insurance and medical interests.
The task force heard from two people, a state insurance employee and a health care agency official, and did not take any public testimony, which disappointed Levine. "We were prepared to speak," she said. She wanted to urge the task force to broaden its scope to include uninsured workers.
The task force meets again Monday in Tallahassee to to discuss findings presented at the insurance symposium. It is scheduled to give Bush a final report in February.
John Ratliff, political director for the Service Employees International Union Local 1991 in South Florida, attended the meeting and found its relationship with the symposium confusing.
"It did result in most of the people who were there at the task force were from the insurance industry," Ratliff said. "Companies who were there could afford the symposium."
