The Connecticut Business and Industry Association in a last-minute press release puts the spotlight on four health care measures in play in Hartford. The Legislature”™s session ends Wednesday.
As the CBIA sees it:
“Four cost-increasing health benefit mandates (contained in Senate bills 5, 10, 191 and 202) remain in the Legislature as the session heads into its last weeks.
“A health benefit mandate is a government requirement that insurance policies cover certain medical procedures or services.
“While every mandate provides a service for a specific group, each also drives up the overall cost of health insurance for all. And in Connecticut, that”™s a big and costly issue because we already require more than 50 health benefit mandates.
“It”™s a simple equation: The more mandates lawmakers adopt, the more it will cost to buy health insurance at a time when Connecticut is already facing some of the highest health care costs in the nation.
“Not only will new health benefit mandates increase employers”™ insurance costs, they also will require, under federal rules, that the state pick up their tab for certain plans bought through the state”™s exchange.
“What”™s more, state-mandated benefits apply only to fully insured plans ”” meaning the higher costs will impact smaller businesses that can”™t afford to self-insure.
“Taking into account not only the increased cost but also the significant changes employers are already facing with health care policy changes, now is not the time to add to the existing cost and confusion.”
For more information, contact CBIA”™s Jennifer Herz at 860-244-1921.
