As we reported in the last post, the money is in the budget for the Legislative Finance Committee to complete a fiscal analysis of the Health Security Plan. (The Legislative Finance Committee is a legislative committee made up of senators and representatives that meets outside of the legislative session.)
The two supplemental budget bills have now been officially approved by their respective committees, and the House bill (HB 548) has already been passed by the full House.
HB 548 has $275,000 allocated for a fiscal analysis of the Health Security Plan, and the Senate bill (SB 536) has $114,000. That's a total of $389,000!
HB 548:
SB 536:
This is a huge achievement! Remember, the original 2019 Health Security Act called for an appropriation of $375,000 for the Legislative Finance Committee to oversee a fiscal analysis to make sure the Health Security Plan is economically viable.
The Health Security Plan itself could not get enacted until the 2021 legislative session--when, with the fiscal analysis in hand, the legislature would need to vote to move forward with setting up the Plan.
With the legislature, nothing is ever certain, but at this point it looks as though we're on track with finally getting the fiscal analysis of the Health Security Plan completed.
Bottom line: There's more than one way to get things done!