This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The scene was described by those in attendance as a bit eerie.
Independent insurance broker Don Ruzicka was presenting to the Legislature's Health and Human Services Interim Committee a 42-minute dissertation on his cost-saving high-deductible health insurance plan for state employees. His wife, Eagle Forum taskmaster Gayle Ruzicka, was sitting on the front row of the packed committee room, dutifully knitting. And Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, a committee member, was zonked out in his chair.
Don Ruzicka was invited to make his presentation by the committee's chairman, Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, who revised the Oct. 20 meeting agenda at the last minute to make room for the husband of the conservative kingmaker.
He was placed second on the agenda, ahead of several other issues that had attracted a number of stakeholders in the health care debate. He then droned on for 42 minutes, prompting at least one senator to interrupt at one juncture to inquire about the point of the presentation.
Buttars snapped at anyone questioning the format, letting everyone know that he was the chairman of the committee and he would set the agenda the way he wanted.
Interestingly, though, as soon as Ruzicka finished his presentation, to the relief of many in the room, Buttars left, turning the meeting over to Christensen, who woke up just in time to assume authority.
The late inclusion of Ruzicka in the meeting's agenda raised more than a few questions.
The Public Employees Health Program provides the health insurance coverage for the public employees and members of the Utah Public Employee Association. And while PEHP was listed on the agenda to make a presentation, its representatives were not given an opportunity to speak.
PEHP already offers a high-deductible health insurance plan, which, according to UPEA officials, is not nearly as popular as other plans.
Rep. Brad Daw, R-Orem, sponsored the bill that created the existing high-deductible option and is heavily involved in health care reform discussions as a member of both the Health and Human Services Interim Committee and the Health System Reform Cost Containment Workgroup that meets monthly.
The Ruzicka plan has not been presented to the working group, which is a task force set up to devise recommendations for affordable health care reform.
Contacted later, Daw said he was willing to look at the plan Ruzicka presented and consider the differences between that plan and the high-deductible plan already in place. Ruzicka told the committee his plan could save one-third of the current cost of employee health insurance.
Daw also wanted to make clear that if PEHP administers the plan, Ruzicka would not stand to make any money on the deal.
But some who attended the Oct. 20 meeting were not so sure. Ruzicka, through his Medisave Account Management, has been selling that product for years. He has made numerous presentations to school districts for their insurance plans throughout Utah.
And there is the Buttars-Ruzicka connection.
Buttars, who said he might run legislation in the 2011 session to incorporate the plan Ruzicka described, is a close political ally to Gayle Ruzicka and her Eagle Forum and has been one of the Legislature's greatest beneficiaries of Eagle Forum support.
Buttars also is a senator who is known to take care of his friends.
You might recall when Buttars wrote a letter expressing his disdain for a judge who ruled against Buttars' friend Wendell Gibby in a dispute Gibby was having with the city of Mapleton.
Buttars expressed regret in the letter that as chairman of the Senate Confirmation Committee, he voted to confirm the judge's appointment.
The letter led to Buttars' demotion from committee chairman, but he remained a strong advocate of Gibby's issues and several of Gibby's employees donated generously to Buttars' campaign.
E-mail Paul Rolly at prolly@sltrib.com