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call to order assistant the the fourth meeting of the standing committee on house banking and insurance uh we do have three bills to consider this morning at this time adam clerk would you please call the roll representative bentley representative fisher here representative flannery here representative frazier representative gooch representative hatton here representative kirk mccormick representative koenig representative cole carney here in my nx office representative lockett here representative mcpherson here representative meredith representative roberts here in the room representative santoro representative smith representative stevenson representative up church here representative westrom vice chair lewis here chairman roland present now we do have a quorum authorized to conduct business this morning uh i know that senator alvarado is chairing the committee at this exact same time so we'll go ahead and get started we'll do the bills in order first up will be senate bill 44. senator come to the table introduce yourself your guest and proceed with your testimony thank you mr chairman thank you members of the committee i'm ralph alvarado state senator for the 28th district this is ms glenn cooper if you want to introduce yourself hi thank you chairman for your time today gwen cooper ceo of patient services i appreciate the opportunity i appreciate the opportunity to present senate bill 44 as we all know um our nation as a whole in kentucky in particular is in the midst of a health care crisis and every year patients lose their health insurance because they can't pay their premium for a period of time or even their medication co-pays and since the beginning of the pandemic it's been worse millions of people have lost their health insurance and for many kentuckians access to charitable assistance is an essential part of the healthcare safety net senate bill 44 simply ensures that non-profits and places of worship like our churches can pay all or part of your health insurance premiums and other cost sharing for your medications and treatments if and when needed and insurance companies have to accept and count those payments as if you made them yourself this is like when a church or charity pays for someone's food or rent the grocery store and the landlord accept the payment regardless of where it came from this bill will keep kentuckians from being pushed off their insurance and onto medicaid or having to rely on the government for disability it'll enable folks to continue to work care for their families and contribute to society not rely on the government and at no additional cost to taxpayers charitable assistance is a crucial lifeline for patients in kentucky and while healthcare is extremely complicated this issue really shouldn't be i'm asking for your support on this bill to help kentucky families keep their insurance and access to care through charitable assistance instead of being pushed off onto medicaid i'll turn that over to ms gwen cooper again thank you for your time today we appreciate the opportunity to bring this important piece of legislation to you patient services has a long-standing relationship with kentucky and you may not know that we administer the children with special healthcare needs title 5 grant for people with bleeding disorders cystic fibrosis and juvenile diabetes i'm sorry juvenile arthritis over our tenure in kentucky by providing case management for people to make sure that they can stay on their insurance we have saved the state of kentucky over 55 million dollars in health care costs this piece of legislation is very simple it simply allows a charity to do what a charity is meant to do which is to provide patients assistance through financial assistance for premiums cost sharing travel nursing infusion anything a patient needs in order to have access to their medications and their treatments it's that simple 46 percent of people have elected not to fill their prescriptions because they can't afford it and in march to april alone of 2020 due to the pandemic kentucky's medicaid rolls increased by seven percent this good piece of legislation simply prevents people from having to spend down their assets and go on to medicaid it allows people we do have a motion and a second we do have a question and we also have someone signed up to speak on the other side of the issue do you want to hear that first representative goocher go ahead and ask your question okay go ahead representative gage okay senator um you know i have great respect for for you and uh you know the some of the things that you said earlier no question i agree with we're in a health care crisis people can't pay their premiums their reasons for that uh federal government uh laws that have been passed people can't pay their deductibles and co-pays because what happened because of those changes we we forced the cost so high that all people then could afford were the really high deductible low copay plants i mean that's and and uh i know that personally uh my wife just uh was prescribed a medication that's gonna be four or six hundred dollars a month and she chose not to take it which i said you need to but she she hasn't because you know of the cost so i know what you're trying to do here i just feel like at some point though instead of doing all these little things that really don't solve the problem you know when are we ever going to solve the problem when we're going to try to address the real issues or why are premiums so high we can't afford them why are why is it that we can only afford the the really high deductible plan uh you know all of those types of things and and part of the reason is because someone's deciding for us that you know if you're going to have a plan you're going to have the very best uh now if you can't afford it you got nothing but we're gonna force you to take the very best plan and and i just uh you know why is it that prescription drugs prices are so much higher in in the united states than anywhere else and so but the only question that i do have is have you depart talk to the department of insurance uh to see if they have had any problems with this bill i have not uh have not heard anything from that i know we have regular meetings with the cabinet um and haven't heard anything from doi on this in terms of a complete sea change for health care representative you make my mouth water you're asking a doctor how do we fix health care there's probably a thousand different solutions um but they're really i've got some tremendous ideas that i've proposed to plenty of insurance companies on how we fix at least the drug costs to say instead of doing back room deals with with pharmaceutical companies how about you just give us a budget you you know how much a disease state how much you want to spend on diabetes or hypertensions if you want to spend 43 dollars and 22 cents you tell the patient i'm willing to give you 43 bucks and 22 cents to manage your hypertension you and your doctor figure out what medicines to try and if you want to have pharmaceutical companies bring down their drug costs they'll have a drug that might cost 200 bucks and they say but this patient only has 43 dollars and 22 cents to spend you better bring that price down or you're not going to sell your product but the doctor and the patient decide instead of having pharmaceutical companies insurance companies decide and if we can get our insurance companies to do that kind of a model they'll control their costs they know how much they'll spend per disease state they can accumulate so many disease states and say here's your budget and let that patient that doctor decide you probably cover 90 of the costs that the big things would be chemotherapy and big heavy expensive expensive treatments but for a lot of those chronic states that would work and when i proposed it to insurance companies a lot of their big ceos i think it's a novel idea and i go no really it's just a budget but that's that's a whole nother discussion i can get into on this issue doi hasn't expressed any concern for me there's no fiscal note as far as an impact for the state um and i've talked to the cabinet regularly and i think this bill they're okay on from my understanding would it apply to the state insurance group as well no it does not and it's i mean it applies and i want to make sure that that's the clear but i don't believe it i think it applies across the board but there's an exemption for um from my understanding for state employee correct state employee health plan correct one follow-up stating health estate plan or other self-insured plans i don't think it applies for all self-insured plans okay yeah thank you thank you mr chairman thank you representative gooch we do have uh remotely joining us today tom stevens executive director of kentucky association health plans welcome uh tom introduce yourself mr chairman can you hear me yes sir introduce yourself and proceed uh thank you mr chairman and members of the committee uh my name is tom stevens and i'm the executive director of the kentucky association of health plans khp is the trade association for kentucky's commercial health insurance providers who are here this morning to sound the alarm about senate bill 44 and ask you to vote no i realize that you've probably been contacted by numerous charities in patient advocacy groups who say that this bill does nothing more than allow charities to pay someone's premiums or deductibles however there is a lot more to this bill than simple philanthropy senate bill 44 incentivizes foundations like patient services inc to pay private insurance co-payments for someone who may otherwise be eligible for a government-sponsored program like medicare or medicaid on the surface this sounds like a laudable goal don't we want to keep our citizens off government entitlement programs sure won't this save the commonwealth and its taxpayers money alas as with most things involving health insurance the devil is in the details no one especially my members are suggesting we prohibit genuine charities from helping with medical expenses but what sb 44 will really accomplish is making sure that providers and big pharma maximize cash flows by redirecting patients from government programs with lower reimbursement rates to private market coverage with higher reimbursement rates so why does this matter besides potentially leaving unwitting patients on the hook for future co-pays deductibles and co-insurance when the charity walks away these practices undermine the individual market by skewing the risk pool driving up premiums and ultimately increasing healthcare costs for individuals and small businesses it's also foreseeable that if enacted we will see an influx of individuals with severe ailments choosing to seek treatment in kentucky my members have asked me to remind you about a similar phenomenon that took place after house bill 250 in 1994 when charities were set up to pay premiums for patients with high cost conditions to take advantage of kentuckian's favorable health insurance coverage the practice was then banned in health purchasing alliance and in kentucky's high risk pool kentucky access these types of policies lead to adverse selection the charities don't look to pay premiums for healthier individuals they're looking for folks that have the highest cost conditions this leads to additional costs being added to the risk pool meaning more premiums will be needed to meet these costs as we previously shared with the other chamber one area these practices are most prevalent with is dialysis providers for patients with end-stage renal disease these third-party entities funded directly or indirectly by providers facilities or big pharma pay the patient premiums they can then sit back and virtually guarantee a higher return on investment because the commercial insurers pay substantially higher amounts for dialysis treatments than medicare and medicaid and while it may not be legal to steer a patient to a specific provider in our rural areas it's largely foreseeable that patients will seek care close to home and with limited options these foundations can guarantee paydays the washington post called these charities a quote lucrative philanthropic model for donors where for every million dollars the drug industry spends on charity support access they have the potential to generate up to 21 million dollars for the sponsor company as we continue climbing out of the covit 19 crisis that's affected every aspect of our economy transferring what is effectively a provider big pharma bonus under the backs of kentucky's commercial insurance market while perhaps well intended undermines the auspices of philanthropy this is a bad prescription for kentucky don't let kentucky become a health insurance destination we ask you to please vote no on sb44 subject to your questions uh mr chairman thank you thank you tom do we have any questions representative gooch thank you uh i think what i heard you say is that um of course we let me start by saying that i think we all agree that uh when whenever you have uh you know if everyone buys insurance you don't really have a problem with pre-existing conditions or high cost conditions or any everything because there's enough people paying the premiums uh you know to take take care of that but i think uh your point is that if you have charitable groups who volunteer to pay volunteer to pay people's premiums they are going to not look to find some healthy 20 year old to pay their premiums they're going to look to pay premiums for someone my age who has chronic health conditions very high cost conditions and they will pay my premiums so that i then will have insurance that probably reimbursed at a higher rate than if i were to have to go on medicaid or something is that is that correct yes uh representative goods that's exactly correct okay thank you thank you mr chairman thank you any other questions or comments from members of the committee uh if not we have a motion in a second properly in front of us at this time madam clerk please call the row representative bentley representative fisher yes representative flannery explain my vote mr chair i'm going to vote yes um however um there are some issues i would like to talk to the kentucky association of health plans about thank you representative frazier representative gooch can't explain my vote this is this is the tough one i mean you know it's not tough that we want to help people with you know want to donate and that sort of thing but it but it i think there really are uh legitimate uh implications as to where it why it really affects the overall market out there and uh i know i'm really torn i'm gonna go ahead and cast a reluctant vote because i understand what you're trying to do but but i think you're you're you're probably having much more unintended consequences than you realize thank you representatives could you clarify your vote please reluctant yes [Laughter] representative hatton explain my vote mr chair i'm going to pass today i voted for this last year and it seemed like something that was an easy yes but i guess i've just got a lot more to learn about it based on the testimony today so i'm gonna pass for now representative kirk mccormick is this the one where if it passes um the deductibles out-of-pocket deductible uh expense does not go forward no um there are two bills the this bill is specifically for uh charities to provide cost sharing and premium assistance for fine for needs-based financial aid for patients that are needs based tested there's a lot of information in that testimony that is completely false and i would i look forward to having the opportunity to talk to you all so this is not the accumulator bill this is specifically for non-profits to be able to pay financial assistance for patients that need it for their premiums their cost sharing nursing infusion and travel to medical treatments thank you thank you thank you representative koenig representative carney explain um my vote please real quick i'm going to pass today i think i understand the intent of this bill but mr stevens brought up some some points that are concerning me so i'd like to do a little bit more research and i'll likely reach out to both of you
thank you representative lewis yes representative lockett yes representative mcpherson yes representative meredith yes representative roberts yes and explain my vote i'm gonna vote yesterday i also um i echo representative gucci's concern here and i also would love to see a more holistic fix to all of our healthcare woes but my guest today is in support of all of the advocacy groups that have come out in favor of this group many of whom are charitable organizations that truly help people in my district so thank you representative santoro yes representative smith yes representative stevenson explain my vote i'm going to pass today as well um i i think again on the surface i love the intent of this bill if i could wave a magic wand i would i i would give us universal health care and i love hearing representative gooch almost advocate for that as well but you know again i think the heart of this bill is good but um you know there was some concerning testimony that i feel like i need to dive into a little bit more so um i'll reserve my vote for the floor thanks representative upchurch yes representative westrom i'd like to ask a question that uh my colleague brought up a question in my mind as she asked a question so you can explain your explain your vote yeah i'd like to explain my vote is there a reason that a non-profit would need to get legislative authority to pay for prescriptions um that is a great question the in 2014 cms did pass a federal law that allows uh that mandates insurance companies allow specific groups to provide financial assistance for patients those include like the ryan white foundation indian tribes etc it was silent on non-profits so sometimes some states have no problem accepting non-profit charitable assistance and some have said well cms was silent on it so we're going to not accept it and that has forced many people to go into bankruptcy and not be able to afford their medications so this fixes it so it's not silent anymore good point thank you i vote yes yes uh representative bentley would you like to uh schedule a vote on senate bill 44 yes be a yes vote thank you motion does pass and we'll move to the house floor thank you senator alvarado if you want to stay seated you're up next for thank you ms cooper for being here as well uh you're up next for uh senate bill 45 i do have a committee substitute that i have sponsored and talked with senator about the change it does make is it it changes the bill to where it does not apply it remove the additional exception for prescriber that determines brand name drug is medically necessary except for when the drug has been approved through prior authorization step therapy or exceptions approval this is in my thoughts a little more consistent with the house bill 72 that representative bentley passed to this committee and off the house floor last year some of the insurers more comfortable with that language so i would ask for a motion on the house committee substitute second we'll have a motion in a second all those in favor aye okay we are considering the house committee substitute thank you mr chairman thank you members of the committee um so senate bill 45 is really a patient protection bill that's going to help kentuckians afford their medications and these two bills the previous one we had thought about combining into one but i think there's different groups and so we thought a little bit of a different issue so we brought them as separate bills and i raised this important issue both as a legislator and also as a doctor i'm joined i'm going to be joined today by joey clausing he's the co-founder of cure cystic fibrosis and dr ben mudd from the kentucky pharmacists association they joined more than 20 advocacy groups like the american cancer society hemophilia foundation the kentucky medical association arthritis foundation several others who want to ensure that individuals suffering from chronic conditions have access to the medications they need senate bill 45 addresses a growing problem a new insurance company practice called the copay accumulator adjustment that's leading to increase and often surprising out-of-pocket costs for kentuckians when they visit the pharmacy as out-of-pocket costs have increased steadily over the years many patients especially those with chronic conditions have come to rely on copay financial assistance programs to afford their medicines however many insurance companies are refusing to apply the value of those payments made through copay assistance programs to their annual deductibles and it's hurting kentuckians this would be like somebody in front of you if you go through mcdonald's or starbucks in front of you and they're going to pay it forward they're going to pay for your your coffee or your meal just as out of goodwill they take that money then you show up and they say well you got to pay a full price for it again because you're coming here and that's just that's just not right as a doctor and no one will know but the person doing it sometimes and as a doctor again i find these kind of things concerning and concerning and i know we've all heard from the insurance companies about making sure that people have skin in the game when it comes to the cost of health care and we do need to be good health care shoppers i've got a bill for that too for probably for next year on health care transparency for people to know what they're shopping for to make it easier in that regard but this practice goes too far and it punishes patients through unexpected additional costs studies show that when a patient's sure of prescription costs become too high they're often skipping doses they stop taking their medicines entirely that leads to higher costs down the road in terms of hospitalizations er visits senator we got a motion in a second on the bill i've said enough mr chairman okay i know you have some folks online um do they want to comment or just be available for questions um well i know there's gonna be some counter testimony i'd like to have their testimony heard if it's all right with the committee and with you mr chairman just to make sure yeah this is a bill that the committee is kind of familiar with so if if they want to uh chime in briefly sure i'd like if you could if mr uh klausing uh if he's on the line uh i think his testimony is particularly powerful and i think the committee should hear it okay sure uh thank you mr chairman thank you senator uh once again joe clausing uh i guess executive director of cure cf the local kentucky charity for cystic fibrosis my son is 13 he has cystic fibrosis his life expectancy is 37. so many of you serving on this committee would not be alive today but for medication he would not be alive today if he were in your shoes in recent years there's been significant advances it's been covered in the wall street journal time magazine new york times discussing therapeutic advances unfortunately these come with significant costs i spoke to a mom bruno wicker from bullitt county last night who has twins with cystic fibrosis they're two one medication for each of them cost four thousand five hundred seventy four dollars and seventy one cents that's every month uh so times that by two and she's fifty thousand dollars there are no alternatives to these medications uh you may hear from the insurance lobbyists and those folks that hey you know we need skin in the game you know our kids have skin in the game my son goes to norton children's every every month to get pricked to get blood drawn and make sure his liver is still working uh he goes to get blood drawn and labs done to make sure his lungs are still functioning correctly um i'm not here as a lobbyist i i just did a little research before i saw you know anthem humana and united spent almost a half a million dollars just on legislative lobby last year my budget zero i'm just a dad trying to save our my son's lives you may hear arguments about putting on the backs of commercial insurance and why should they have to foster this stuff well my daughter has zero prescriptions okay she's nine my son has 13. so that's kind of the deal you get when you do insurance everybody's different strokes for different folks um if it doesn't fall on the insurance folks who they negotiated with it's going to fall on the backs of the parents and the folks with these terminal and chronic illnesses last thing i'll leave you with is 36 to nothing that's not the score of a uk game this year unfortunately uh it's the the way this thing passed out of the senate it sailed out unanimously and by no means a political junkie but it seems that's uh that would be unique for this session uh so i just wanted to thank you all for your time today happy to hear any questions if anything does arise i know this may be the hazard in the barn on this one but if anything does arise when you hear from the insurance companies folks i'm happy to answer any questions from a parent perspective of the son with a chronic disease thank you all thank you sir we appreciate your testimony of being with us today senator alvaro auto any of your others or do you want to move on to the other side if you've got a motion i'll defer to you mr chairman yeah we will we do have a couple of uh folks signed up in opposition to the bill again we have tom stevens uh tom if you're here and want to proceed yeah thank you mr chairman uh in light of the senate committee i'm sorry the house committee substitute approved today um while we still have a few concerns with the legislation generally we're going to withdraw our opposition to the bill thank you for your leadership on this we appreciate it thank you sir we appreciate that uh we also do we have connor rose with us yes thank you chairman members of the committee my name is connor rose on behalf of the pharmaceutical care management association we're the national trade association representing america's pharmacy benefit managers and similar to mr stevens comments while we did not support the original version of the bill we do appreciate the work that's been done with the house committee sub and likewise would like to withdraw our opposition opposition and uh we are neutral on the bill thank you thank you any questions or comments from representative bentley thank you mr chairman thank you dr alvarado and thank you committee for having a ten of years while he spoke thank you anyone else i have one quick question um so subsection 2b says that this shall not apply to any fully insured health benefit plan or self-insured plan provided under to an employee under krs blah blah blah is that a state health sponsored plan that's correct state employee health plan okay thanks thank you see no further comments and questions we do have a motion in a second uh madam clerk please call the role representative bentley yes representative fisher representative flannery yes representative frazier representative gooch yes representative hatton yes representative kirk mccormick yes representative koenig representative cole carney yes representative lewis yes representative lockett yes representative mcpherson representative meredith yes representative roberts yes representative santoro yeah representative smith representative stevenson yes representative up church yes representative westrom chairman roland yes motion does pass unfortunately we don't have a consent calendar so it does go to the full house uh thanks for being here senator alvarado hope you get back to your committee in time to thank mr chairman they're keeping it up so i can cast my votes thank you members of the committee i appreciate the opportunity thanks a lot uh moving right along uh the last bill we will consider this morning is senate bill 71 an act relating to motor vehicles senator carpenter could not be here this morning so filling him in for him will be mark trish and paula smith please introduce yourselves for the record and you may proceed thank you mr chairman oh make sure that's on thank you mr chairman members of the committee my name is mark trish executive director of insurance institute of kentucky we are the state trade association for property and casually as well as life insurance we do not deal with health insurance issues only property and casualty and life paula good morning chairman roland members of the committee i'm paula smith i'm senior counsel for kentucky farm bureau insurance company we are the largest domestic property and casualty insurer in the commonwealth and we do have one person online mr chairman if he could introduce himself yeah please dave hi good afternoon mr chairman members of the committee andrew kirkner on behalf of the national association of mutual insurance companies uh we are a national trade association comprised of more than 1400 member companies uh 13 of which are domiciled in kentucky a pleasure to be here thank you go ahead okay thank you mr chairman uh first of all we'd just like to thank senator carpenter uh in abstention i guess for sponsoring this bill for us it's one we've been working on for probably about a year and a half and or a little more it is based on an a model act passed by the national conference of insurance legislators and it represents the product of a cooperative effort among many groups not only the insurance industry but we have worked closely with the towing association here in kentucky the kentucky bankers association kentucky transportation cabinet the kentucky state police and we've also had input from the kentucky justice association on a couple items on the bill we have a motion and a second any members of questions representative smith question or comment um mr chairman i'd like to ask a couple questions and make a comment sure um i was reached out and i've talked to you over the weekend i was reached out from a local company in my area that has a record service for over maybe 90 80 years it's been passed down to their family their concern was in this section dealing with that they shall not and we discussed this and i even i know i'm not an attorney but i know when the word shall comes up it's a it's got a lot of strength to it and his concerns was when they're out and they have made a a hall or they've had their trucks out and when they come by and they somebody's on the side of the road and they're needing assistance it blocks that in one section then it comes back below in the next section and says that they can so if you can kind of give me an idea of why there's a kind of a contradiction i i've been on this for a number of days so i realize where you're coming from that when there's an accident you're trying to prevent a gang of wreckers flying in and swarming the accident and then having to deal with four or five entities and trying to pay them so i understand where you come from and i appreciate that part of it yeah my concern is a legitimate business that uh actually uh has the uh reputation of not doing that they actually do their job is is this a concern when it says that they shall not do something what is your basis for that right thank you representative smith and just to catch everybody up on a conversation we've had with representative smith very pleasant conversations i might add we're looking specifically at information are these sections subsections three and four on page 10 of the bill if anybody wants to look at that and i will say this is a language that is in from the in-coil model and also language that has been approved by the kentucky towing association the problem that we often have oh is unsolicited or stopped by towing as you described it maybe somebody listening to the scanner they get a call hey there's been a wreck here come on up frankly what that unsolicited towing does is it opens the door to some predatory towing practices not saying anything about your constituent talking about nationwide but it tends to deflect consumer choice of who they're going to have tow them if you know just somebody shows up at a time when maybe they've been an accident they've had a breakdown or whatever it also can interfere with police rotations the sections you're talking about are not really contradictory but it's not uncommon in legislation to say you can't do something unless the following conditions are met and that's what subsections three a
d four read together describe because what it says in subsections three except as provided in subsection four so if you meet the condition of subsection four you can do this otherwise unless you meet that condition you may not a towing company while providing an emergency tow and this is dealing only with emergency towing not any kind of towing that's not covered by the bill not private property towing or anything like that they shall not stop at the scene of an accident for the purpose of soliciting services moving a motor vehicle or accruing charges in other words they can't come by unsolicited and take over the scene unless in four a towing company may stop or cause the person to stop under the following circumstances if they're requested to stop by a law enforcement officer in other words they're driving back from another tow you know an officer's got somebody you know your constituent happens to be driving by they flag them down or call them they're summoned to the scene by the owner or operator or the person is provided consent so in those circumstances they may stop at the scene and provide services but absent those conditions then they may not so they are not really contradictory mr chairman can i make a comment and then i'll be finished i'm not trying to take up the committee's time but um one of the things that we discussed is and i'm not sure every county has this issue but uh i'm aware that there's some with a hook on the back of their truck and they go try to find business sometimes they compound the vehicle and it cost them a lot to get out just because it was said idle on the side of the road i'm not trying to protect those but i'd like to make a suggestion over the interim mr chairman that we look at certifications professionalism finding ways of training so we can eliminate a lot of this and i think it can be eliminated that way that we bring it up to a professional standard in the record service so that's something that i'd like for you to be open with in discussions this summer and i appreciate the communication that we've had and i appreciate you listening to my constituent great well thank you very much representative smith it's been a pleasure dealing with you on this and we're always glad to entertain some further conversations yeah chairman roland just a quick comment to that too representative smith i appreciate that and i just wanted to uh specifically thank the kentucky towing association and i'm sure that they would be happy to talk with you and with other stakeholders because they have indicated that many of the provisions in this bill are already being done by most of the reputable towers but again there are those few um um that you know aren't uh exercising the best practices and so um they really wanted to put all towers on the on a level playing field and so that's why they are aligned with this bill they've been very cooperative i i'd like to thank mike penn with holbrook towing here in frankfort uh and junior ellis out of ellis towing from bardstown who have helped many many months now work on this bill so it has been a collaborative effort but i'm sure they are open to conversation because they see bad practices as well uh in the industry so i just want to thank everybody for uh working on this yeah and they even got on the phone with us uh during the middle of the ice storm when they were up to their eyeballs so they just they did go up above and beyond and it's been a pleasure finding an agreed bill with them thank you i think we have a question or comment from representative gooch you mr chairman thank you uh and thanks senator senator carpenter for bringing this bill uh this has been an issue for a long time out there and and we do know there have been people who uh are bad actors who would go out and tow someone into their place they maybe have a fix a fence lot or whatever and some of the fees that they charge per day plus the towing bill it doesn't take very long for many cars to now the the storage and the and the towing bill is more than the car's worth and so what happens then is that you know the person has just lost their car or maybe the you know the insurance company then uh you know uh totals it out or whatever because the the you know the damage maybe and or plus the towing bill is worth more than what the car is worth and so end call has been working on this i think mr chairman for several years and uh it's something that not only is a problem in kentucky but it's a problem nationwide and i think that uh this bill has been worked on by a lot of people especially at encore and and something that that this committee has worked on for many years here as well i think it's a good deal and i appreciate uh you're bringing it thank you thank you representative gooch you know further questions or comments madam clerk please call the roll representative bentley yes representative fisher yes representative flannery yes representative frazier representative gooch representative hatton yes representative kirk mccormick representative koenig yes are you voting for your annex office today yes thank you representative carney yes representative lewis representative lockett yes representative mcpherson representative representative roberts yes representative santoro yeah representative smith representative stevenson representative upchurch representative westrom chairman roland yes motion does pass and thank you all for being here uh today the bill will move to the house floor thank you mr chairman thank you very much thank you i see no other business for the committee i mean that we are adjourned
