New Healthcare Mandates Rejected

Steering clear of the potential impact on costs, the legislature’s Insurance Committee this week rejected a proposal that would have added several new health insurance mandates to Connecticut’s healthcare system.

SB-17 would have added up to seven new or expanded healthcare mandates but the committee, by a 10-8 vote, defeated the bill.

One of the most significant healthcare cost drivers in Connecticut is the state’s high number of health benefit mandates—laws that require state-regulated, fully insured insurance policies to cover certain medical procedures and services.

Connecticut has at least 59 health insurance mandates and by some counts the total is over 60.

Mandates require broader coverage, make health insurance much more expensive and ultimately reduce access to coverage. The National Center for Policy analysis estimates that 25% of the uninsured in the U.S. are priced out of the market by state mandates.

CBIA applauds the efforts of committee members who recognized the urgent need to avoid making healthcare more expensive in Connecticut.