Utah lawmakers on Tuesday rolled out an 89-page plan for shaking up Utah's health insurance market and paving the way for lower-cost plans, groundwork for what they say will be a 10-year reform effort.

The key bill would increase the range of plans sold in Utah by allowing health maintenance organizations (HMOS) and preferred provider organizations (PPOs) to more easily offer cheaper coverage, free of some state-mandated benefits.

But there are two caveats: Companies must offer the plans through an Internet portal, a kind of Travelocity.com that will help Utahns compare insurers' rates, coverage and histories of honoring claims. The plans also must involve the customer's employer making a contribution toward the costs.

The portal and the employer contribution arrangement would also be created by the bill, one of several unveiled at Tuesday's final meeting of the Legislature's Health System Reform Task Force.

Under such contribution arrangements, small companies that couldn't otherwise afford to offer benefits to their workers could make deposits into employees' health savings accounts. That money, coupled with government assistance or a spouse's contribution from their employer, would be enough to buy a basic plan.

Employees who purchase their insurance this way would have more protection than the individual market affords. The legislation would permit companies to vet applicants based only on their age, where they live and the composition of their family -- not their medical history.

In return, insurers would be protected from a spike in expensive claims by help from the Utah Health Re-Insurance Pool, a nonprofit that would be created within the state's Department of Insurance.

Insurers also would be required to offer the Utah NetCare Basic Health Care Plan, a new basic benefit package designed to act as a health insurance cushion between jobs. NetCare would be less pricey than COBRA -- the temporary coverage companies now must offer to departing employees, typically at the full price of the group premium.

Because it is "mandate light," meaning it doesn't include all the benefits now required by the state, NetCare would be about a third of the price of the average large-group premium. Those who elect to have a higher deductible could get it at nearly half the cost.

NetCare would be available to individuals and families, or could be purchased as a group plan. It focuses heavily on incentives to make healthy lifestyle changes and offers preventative care for cheap.

Employers would be authorized to offer NetCare as an alternative to COBRA and as an option for helping people transition from group coverage to the individual market.

Self-employed Utahns would also get a little more help. The bill would change the definition of a "small group" from a minimum of two employees to one, giving individuals access to "guaranteed issue" plans -- which cover people regardless of their health history.

Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, said the legislation captures the basic tenets of the state's longer-term plan for a better health system: health insurance reform, personal responsibility, transparency, value and maximizing tax advantages.

"This is a working document. It's a beginning point for us," said Clark, the task force's House chair.

While the group has concluded its work, he said, Utah's reform effort will continue -- though its form is unclear. By the end of the legislative session, Clark predicted, "we'll certainly have a road map for year three."

Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, the task force's Senate chair, said the state's effort will not be derailed -- even by an ailing economy. "It does nothing more than put in my mind the solid need to find answers to this long-term," he said.

lrosetta@sltrib.com