The Legislature-approved plan to set up a vision-care service connected to Covered California suffered a veto by Gov. Jerry Brown.
The governor said in his veto message that the vision-care law would lead to an unnecessary “new state bureaucracy” that would “divert Covered California’s focus with a new scheme.”
The plan under AB 1877 was to set up an independent web site for vision-care-insurance sales to consumers.
Under AB 1877, the web site would have been funded by insurers, not the state. The law would have established the California Vision Care Access Council at insurer’s expense.
The council would have been required “to construct, manage, and maintain an Internet Web site to inform consumers about individual and employer-based vision plans offered by participating carriers,” according to the bill.
The link-up would have asked those who bought Covered California marketplace health policies if they wished to explore vision insurance. A positive response would have taken consumers to the vision-care industry’s web site.
Brown noted the plan would “require Covered California’s board to run the (vision council’s) operations and use the board’s staff and resources.”
Rob Lynch, chief of the not-for-profit Vision Service Plan (VSP), said he was “surprised and shocked” by the veto, asking why would “the governor go against the will of the people of California?” VSP Global was the driving force behind the plan.
“AB 1877 was a great solution to provide affordable access to eye care for adult Californians,” Lynch said. He said it “followed exactly the requirements set forth by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”
The board of Covered California, the state Obamacare operation, voted to allow vision-care insurers into the marketplace, but later maintained the move would be a violation of federal law.
Brown also noted the operation “may be impermissible under federal rules.”
AB 1877 sponsor Ken Cooley, D-Rancho Cordova, envisioned the vision-care operation as “augmenting and supplementing the essential health benefits available through the California Health Benefit Exchange.”
“A lack of vision coverage is a serious gap in the new health care plans,” Cooley said.
Lynch charged that “the governor has communicated to the Californians he represents that access to affordable adult vision care is not important.”
Covered California opened its insurance marketplace for sales of dental-care policies to adults in 2015, but dental care was specified as an optional area of care under the Affordable Care Act. Vision care is offered only to children and teens via Covered California.
The health-care legislation was approved unanimously by the Assembly and Senate, which is not unusual for measures approved by lawmakers’ health committees.
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