Funding for a statewide trauma system in Arkansas could end up coming from an increase in taxes placed on insurance policies in the state, members of a joint House and Senate committee heard March 30.
Senate President Jack Critcher proposed increasing the state’s insurance premium by one-quarter of 1 percent to provide about $15 million to pay for starting the system, which sends car-crash victims and others to appropriate hospitals based on their injuries.
However, with a session focused on tax breaks set to end April 3, even the bill’s sponsor acknowledged it would be a tough sale to House members.
“I’ve had a lot of people who told me they won’t vote for a tax increase,” said Rep. Denny Sumpter, D-West Memphis.
The insurance premium increase is the third suggested funding source for the program, following plans to increase fines for moving violations and drunken-driving convictions and placing a $1-a-month fee on every automobile insured in the state. The House voted to approve the bill with the fines while the Senate wanted the monthly insurance charge.
The House and Senate launched a conference committee to reach an agreement on how to fund the system, as Gov. Mike Beebe said he would not support the $1 monthly fee. Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the governor would wait to see the insurance premium increase in writing before commenting on it.
Increasing the premium by a quarter of 1 percent would mean another $1.25 added to a $500 policy, whether it be car, home, life or other insurance plan.
“A trauma center benefits everybody,” said Critcher, D-Batesville. “When you spread it out, everybody pays a little and it adds up to a lot.”
However, the increase would pay only $15 million, not the $25 million estimated with the $1 monthly fee. Sumpter said the $25 million, coupled with federal matching grants, would help link 80 state and regional hospitals into the system, providing for training and equipment.
The $15 million could help support two levels of the trauma system, Sumpter said, meaning one Level One hospital providing the best care available and hospitals in the state’s four geographic areas offering the next tier of care.
The Arkansas Hospital Association says Arkansas is the only state without a trauma center and one of three states without a trauma system. With the system, the association estimates at least 200 lives could be saved a year in the state.
The system would include The Med in Memphis, Tenn., which currently provides trauma care to many of the most seriously injured patients in Arkansas. The Med, which receives about $1 million a year from Arkansas, is facing a $10 million budget shortfall this year.
The committee came to no consensus Friday on how to fund the system, planning to meet Monday for a final effort to again bring the bill before lawmakers. Even then, the bill would need to leap through the parlimentary rules governing House action to make it to the floor by the end of the session Tuesday.
Even then, as Rep. Daryl Pace told the committee, its passage remained unlikely as he said increasing the fee would require a three-fourths vote of the House.
“I don’t believe this will even work in the House,” said Pace, R-Siloam Springs. “You’re just wasting your breath.”
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