Is Healthy Howard Insurance?

The Sun and others report that the start of Howard County's innovative health access plan for the uninsured will be pushed back three months to Oct. 1 because state legislation is needed to distinguish Healthy Howard as a private, nonprofit corporation, not an insurance company.

The program would use a combination of existing health programs and public and private donations and services to let about 20,000 uninsured residents get comprehensive medical care for a small fee,
the Sun says.

If it were deemed an insurance company then it would have to meet requirements such as maintaining a multimillion dollar reserve against losses -- which now that we think about it presents an interesting question.

Of course, if we were the suspicious type, we might think that the insurance lobby is somehow trying to glom onto the effort for its own interests. But that just seems so unlikely, doesn't it?