Q&A with House Insurance Committee Chair Patty Kim

Democratic state Rep. Patty Kim represents the Capital City of Harrisburg and serves as the majority chair of the state House Insurance Committee. Kim, who is running for state Senate and serving her last term in the state House, recently reflected on the committee's work to City & State.

“As chair of the Insurance Committee and (in) my last term in the House, I’m proud that I was able to help more families afford health insurance,” she said. “It’s important and it will improve the quality of health for so many more Pennsylvanians.”

Kim also discussed an insurance affordability bill she sponsored that was included in this year’s state budget, the impact that Pennie has on the insurance landscape in Pennsylvania and the importance of lowering the cost of health care in general. 

The following interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Your bill’s language creates an affordability assistance program within Pennie – how would this work? 

My bill set up a framework allowing Pennie to offer a state financial subsidy to Pennie customers. New Pennie customers could use the subsidy to purchase health insurance for the first time, and existing Pennie customers could use the subsidy to buy a better-quality health insurance plan. 

Importantly, the subsidy program – known as the affordability assistance program – can only be implemented with a $50 million General Fund appropriation or monetary transfer from the Joint Underwriting Association. 

Neither has taken place, so, although my bill set up the program framework, the program cannot be implemented for Pennie’s 2025 plan year.

Assuming it gets funded, what will its impact be on Pennsylvanians?

Once funded, the affordability assistance program will help more people get better health insurance through Pennie. Ultimately, the number of people this program will help depends on the funding amount and how Pennie designs the program. 

Pennie has broad flexibility under the bill to establish an affordability program that will make the most impact on Pennsylvanians. 

Who would be eligible and how would they take advantage of this program?

The version of my bill enacted in this year’s Fiscal Code allows Pennie to decide program parameters, provided the parameters help Pennie customers with annual gross incomes between 151% to 300% of the federal poverty line.

How has Pennie improved access to health insurance in Pennsylvania?

Pennie has expanded access to affordable, high-quality health insurance through a variety of means, including by expanding the annual Open Enrollment Period from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15, and by providing for additional special enrollment periods that allow people to get coverage through Pennie mid-year. Over 400,000 Pennsylvanians have enrolled in Pennie coverage in the past year – the most ever.

Are there any other insurance-related changes to state law you would like to see moving forward? 

In the last several years, we’ve seen great strides toward increasing the number of people covered by health insurance, but finding affordable health care is challenging for many people. Also, most health insurance is regulated exclusively by the federal government, so states like Pennsylvania have very limited tools to reduce health care costs. 

I look forward to continuing discussions with my federal and state colleagues on how best to expand access to affordable health care.