Human Needs Report Article

The Human Needs Report is the Coalition on Human Needs' newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations. It is published every other week while Congress is in session.

Senate HELP Committee Approves Bill That Would Seriously Weaken Health Insurance Consumer Protections (3/17/06)

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved a bill on March 15 that would remove or block consumer protections related to health insurance in every state and result in even higher health care costs for some groups. The Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization Act (HIMMA, S. 1955), sponsored by the HELP Committee chairman Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY), is supposed to make it easier for health insurance plans to be marketed across state line to small business groups, who would benefit through lower costs. The bill was approved on party-line vote of 11-10 after the Republican majority rejected several amendments to prevent the loss of certain consumer protections, such as state mandates for coverage of breast cancer screening and treatment and state laws that protect domestic violence victims from discrimination in pricing and coverage.

In the name of "harmonizing" the regulatory framework in which health insurance plans operate, the bill would obliterate laws in at least 20 states that require plans to make certain treatments available and laws that require plans to cover certain providers such as dentists, social workers, psychologists and others. It would also invalidate the laws in 31 states preventing small business group plans from charging higher premiums based on demographic factors such as age and sex.

Advocates also fear that in the long-run, as increasingly bare-bones plans are marketed all over the country and older, less healthy people try to stay in more traditional, comprehensive plans, the cost of the latter plans will rise greatly to accommodate the health care costs of their consumers. This will make health care even less affordable than it is currently for those who need it the most.

For more information, see the fact sheet from Families USA: http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/enzi-bill/Enzi-bill_national_1.pdf