BY LINDA BAKER | OB EDITOR
The Pinchot Institute for Conservation and PacificSource Health Plans have partnered to provide a first of its kind ATreeM card that uses proceeds from American Carbon Registry-certified carbon credits to provide health care funds to family forest owners.
BY LINDA BAKER | OB EDITOR
The Pinchot Institute for Conservation and PacificSource Health Plans have partnered to provide a first of its kind “ATreeM” card that uses proceeds from American Carbon Registry-certified carbon credits to provide health care funds to family forest owners.
According to Pinchot’s Alex Andrus, the Oregon pilot project, three years in the making, grew out of a survey showing that health care costs were one of the main reasons family forest owners sold off land to be subdivided for development purposes. The partnership also aims to grow the fledgling U.S. market for carbon credits, which companies and investors purchase to offset pollution emissions.
So far, most entities interested in purchasing carbon credits invest in emissions reductions projects in developing countries, not the United States.
Enter the Forest Health-Human Health Initiative, in which investors purchase American Carbon Registry-certified carbon credits, with the proceeds returned to landowners in the form of cash deposits to their PacificSource ATreeMT card. By converting carbon credits into health care dollars, so the logic goes, family forest owners will keep the land as forest, offsetting greenhouse gas emissions generated by development.
“The initiative adds value at every point in the chain,” says Andrus.
Unlike other health care debit cards, the ATreeMT does not require participation in any health insurance policy, participation in any employer-provided health insurance plan, as is the case in health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). The card also limits debits to only health care expenses such as prescription purchases, wellness care, dental care, co-pays, and insurance deductibles.
In the absence of mandatory limits on carbon, the U.S. carbon market has struggled for years. California instituted a cap and trade program this year, and Oregon legislators are now debating a carbon tax. At the same time, the state is pushing forward with pioneering programs programs to reduce health care costs.
To be sure, the Pinchot/PacificSource partnership is one very small solution to two very big problems.
The innovators are undeterred.
“As of today, we are officially ready to talk to investors and make transactions,” Andrus says.
OB Editor Linda Baker keeps tabs on CEO and public policy issues, with frequent forays into innovation, entrepreneurship, and bikes.
