Alfa, one of the largest property-casualty insurers in Alabama, is clarifying that it is not planning to move into the health insurance business: A hotly debated bill in the state Legislature would allow Alfa’s affiliated farmers federation to offer a health plan to some members, and some Alabama news reports this week suggested that Alfa Insurance is behind the move.
“Alfa Insurance is a property-casualty and life insurance company. It has no intention of getting into health insurance coverage,” said Jeff Helms, director of communications for Alfa Farmers organization.
Senate Bill 232 does not name Alfa, which started out as Alabama Farmers Federation in 1921 and created its insurance arm in the 1940s. But the bill would allow “nonprofit agricultural organizations” to provide health benefits to members and their families. Alfa officials have said they are hoping to reach small business owners and others who don’t qualify for the Affordable Care Act health plan, known as ObamaCare, but who say they can’t really afford market-based health insurance.
Two Alabama news outlets indicated that Alfa Insurance, best known for its 1 million home and auto policies around the South, is now setting its sights on the health insurance market. Helms said that’s not the case.
Nonetheless, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, which now writes the health coverage for Alfa members, has opposed the plan. A video recording of the Alabama Senate Banking and Insurance Committee meeting this week was not available, but news outlets quoted Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama’s government affairs director as saying the bill is an end-run around strict health insurance regulations.
The bill is not pro-business, only pro-Alfa, lobbyist Ted Hosp told the committee.
A Democrat on the committee, Sen. Bobby Singleton, of Greensboro, said that if Alfa wants to help with health coverage for working people, it should support Medicaid expansion, the Daily News reported. Expanding Medicaid has been opposed by many Republican leaders in Alabama and a few other Southern states.
The American Cancer Society also questioned the bill, noting it would allow Alfa’s membership federation to cherry-pick the people it wants to cover and would not guarantee coverage for cancer treatments, as health insurers have to do.
Under current Alabama law, organizations like Alfa’s federation are not authorized to offer health benefits to members, the bill explains. The proposed change would allow plans similar to those in Tennessee and five other states, the Daily News noted.
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, a business owner and chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee.
If approved and signed into law, the measure could have a significant impact on state premium tax collections, according to a fiscal analysis by legislative staff. It “could decrease insurance premium tax receipts to the State General Fund by an undetermined amount if members of nonprofit agricultural organizations cancel existing insurance plans in lieu of the health benefits options provided by nonprofit agricultural organizations,” the fiscal note reads.
That revenue loss could come to more than $19 million a year if just 15% of Alfa’s members were to enroll, the Alabama Political Reporter noted.
The bill specifies that the nonprofit agricultural organization “would not be engaged in the business of health insurance,” but would be able to offer “benefits.”
“A nonprofit agricultural organization that offers nonprofit agricultural organization health benefits shall provide to an individual applying for nonprofit agricultural organization health benefits written notice that the benefits are not provided through an insurance policy or other product the offering or issuance of which is regulated as the business of insurance in this state,” the bill reads.
The bill may have a good chance of passing this year. Alfa is known for its influence in the Alabama Capitol, and other insurers and some insurance agents have repeatedly complained that Alfa is provided preferential treatment with significant tax breaks that other carriers don’t enjoy.
Alfa Farmers has more than 300,000 members.
Photo: Alabama’s State Capitol building.
