By: Kathleen McLaughlin for theIndianaLawyer.com

The Statehouse is a common battlefield for factions in Indiana’s alcoholic beverage industry, and this session, one group of beer wholesalers is firing shots in multiple directions.

Driven by the Indiana Beverage Alliance, Senate Bill 415 seeks to derail federal court cases brought by the group’s opponents–  including Indianapolis-based Monarch Beverage Co. – who claim Indiana’s Prohibition-era alcohol laws are unconstitutional.

The bill also contains a long list of rules on how beer companies can do business with wholesalers, a set of provisions meant to remedy the trade group’s ongoing quarrel with Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Indiana Beverage Alliance President Marc Carmichael called the bill “my turd in the punch bowl.”

“We’ve certainly gotten a lot of attention,” Carmichael said.

Republican Sen. Ron Alting, chairman of the Public Policy Committee, is sponsoring the bill.

Indiana’s beer wholesalers split into two camps as Monarch tried to change Indiana law so that it could distribute liquor as well as beer. Liquor wholesalers oppose that change, and so do the beer wholesalers represented by the Indiana Beverage Alliance. Both groups fear that it would help create a distribution monopoly.

Having failed to get bills passed over four sessions, Monarch turned last year to federal court with a lawsuit against the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, saying Indiana’s law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

The convenience store lobby, the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, filed a similar lawsuit in May over the fact that its members aren’t allowed to sell cold beer.

SB 415 states that if any portion of the Indiana code on alcohol is found to be invalid, the rest shall be interpreted to limit, rather than expand, commerce in that industry.

Monarch CEO Phil Terry said he’s opposing the bill, even though he agrees that Indiana’s laws are intended to be restrictive. “We don’t necessarily disagree with the policy statement they’ve got in there,” he said. “It’s just, I know why they put it in there, to affect our lawsuit.”

The Indiana Beverage Alliance supports liquor distributors who are trying to intervene in Monarch’s lawsuit, but Carmichael said SB 415 isn’t aimed at one case or trade group.

He said the goal is to prevent deep-pocketed companies from challenging state alcohol laws in court. “It’s been a phenomenon around the country over the last several years as various groups have tried to deregulate alcohol to their advantage.”

Amanda Creech
TheStatehouseFile.com

Hundreds of people gathered at the Statehouse on Thursday for a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration that included the unveiling of busts that commemorate the lives of two trailblazers.

(Washington, DC) – On Thursday, Congressman Larry Bucshon, a physician from Southern Indiana, participated in a Congressional hearing and voted to pass legislation aimed at providing his constituents with vital information regarding the federal healthcare website, Healthcare.gov.

“This federal healthcare website was developed at a huge expense to taxpayers, yet the Administration has taken the opportunity to withhold pertinent website information at every turn,” said Bucshon. “In order for us to effectively address concerns related to the Affordable Care Act, federal and state officials as well as the American people deserve to know this basic information. I’m happy we have addressed this issue with H.R. 3362.”

The legislation, the Exchange Information Disclosure Act (H.R. 3362), passed the House by a vote of 259 to 154, requires the Administration to provide weekly reporting on critical information related to the Healthcare.gov website. This information includes everything from enrollment data, security issues, technical complications, and demographic data and will be made public to state governors, state insurance commissioners, and taxpayers.

Healthcare.gov is one of the largest collections of personal information ever assembled, linking social security numbers, birth dates, and tax and other financial information of its users. One of the most discussed complications with the site has been information security and the vulnerability of this information to be accessed by identity thieves.

Bucshon participated in a hearing, Healthcare.gov: Consequences of Stolen Identity, which included an expert panel of witnesses with a wide array of experience in information security who made the case that the website is unsecure, consumer data is at risk, and the Administration should be held responsible to provide solutions that guarantee taxpayer security.

During his testimony, Bucshon told the panel, “This is about confidence the American people have in their government and whether or not their government is doing everything they can to protect their privacy. It’s not about healthcare.” Bucshon went on to say, “I was a medical doctor before and when you throw in the healthcare part of it, it becomes very personal for people. I think all of us in hearings like this and across government – in the Administration, in both political parties, need to recognize the fact that we need to do whatever we can to regain the confidence of the American people that we are protecting their personal information as best we can.”

Watch Bucshon’s full statement here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8xaFNFtk1k.

BACKGROUND:

The Hearing

More information on the hearing held today by the House Science Committee on the possibility of identity theft on Healthcare.gov can be found here –http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/2014%2001%2016%20Healthcare.gov%20Charter.pdf.

The Bill

Why is H.R. 3362 important? 

Since the flawed roll out of www.HealthCare.gov, the Administration has been averse to revealing reliable information as it relates to website or the implementation of Obamacare. For example, it took the Administration until November 13^th to release any type of enrollment statics. Even then, the Administration announced only that 106,185 individuals had selected plans and that an additional 975,407 individuals had made it through the process of applying and receiving an eligibility determination.  On December 11, 2013, the Administration announced that 258,497 individuals selected a plan.  On each occasion, the Administration has failed to break down the information – such as information identifying who is actually is enrolling, who has actually paid the first month’s premium, who is enrolling in Medicaid.  Moreover, to date, states have received little information from the Administration on the residents being covered, including those who are sick, healthy, young, old, or Medicaid-eligible.

A summary of H.R. 3362:

H.R. 3362, the Exchange Information Disclosure Act, requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit to Congress, and to make available to state governors, state insurance commissioners, and taxpayers, weekly reports that describe the consumer interactions with healthcare.gov or any subsequent website established by the federal government for enrollment in a qualified health plan (QHP) or receipt of premium tax credit.

The report is to include the following:

1. A state-by-state breakdown of:

• The number of unique website visits
• The number of web chat logins
• The number of individuals who create an account
• The number of individuals who enrolled in a QHP or Medicaid, including a breakdown of those individuals enrolled in Medicaid and whether the individual was previously eligible or who became eligible under Obamacare
• The number of individuals who have effectuated enrollment in a QHP through payment of the first monthly premium
• The age of individuals who have effectuate enrollment in a QHP through payment of the first monthly premium
• The number of enrollees in each zip code
• The level of coverage obtained

2. A detailed description of the problems identified with website functionality, actions taken to address these problems, identity of the contractors involved in remedying these issues, how these actions are being paid for, and the federal officials overseeing the effort.

3. A description of separate problems with the website, including

• Logging in
• Enrolling
• Transferring to state Medicaid programs
• Calculating advance premium tax credits or cost sharing reductions
• Determining eligibility for QHPs, tax credits/cost sharing reductions, Medicaid, or CHIP
• Verifying income or identity
• Transferring information to health insurance issuers
• Consumer privacy and data security

In addition, H.R. 3362 requires the Secretary, within five days of enactment, to make available to the individuals identified above a list of all navigators and certified application counselors who have been trained and certified by the exchanges. Finally, the bill requires the Secretary, within five days of enactment, to make available on healthcare.gov, or subsequent federally run website to help individuals obtain insurance, a list of all licensed agents and brokers

The West Virginia chemical plume has passed through Louisville, and the Louisville Water Co. is reporting that after carbon treatment in its Crescent Hill reservoir, the chemical can no longer be detected.

The next major cities that will see the chemical plume pass their shores are Owensboro, KY and Evansville, IN that will see their date with the spill on Monday.

The “plume” of MCHM spilled into the Elk River Jan. 9 in West Virginia, and arrived at Louisville’s Zorn Avenue intake early Friday morning. At its peak, company scientists measured the concentration at 3.5 parts per billion in river water.

Louisville Water will continue the carbon treatment at the Crescent Hill Reservoir through Sunday, she said. Staffers sniffing the raw Ohio River water noticed today that it has returned to a fishy smell, she said, after about a day of the telltale licorice odor of the chemical.

The company issued its press release about successfully managing the plume Saturday afternoon.

The CDC has said anything less than 1 part per million is safe for everyone except for pregnant women. For pregnant women, they suggested a level of less than 50 parts per billion is safe.

For West Virginians, anyway, their nightmare story is not going away. But it appears that for Louisvillians, plume-a-geddon is one for the history books.