Time for a Pause on Unfunded Health Insurance Mandates on Colorado Businesses

The Colorado Association of Health Underwriters (CSAHU) is Colorado’s largest professional association of brokers, agents and producers of health, life and long-term care insurance. We work with thousands of Colorado’s consumers every day. We advocate on behalf of our insured clients. Each year, our agents deliver and explain the premium increases businesses and individuals continue to sustain across this state. We hear their desires and frustrations regarding health insurance and the health care delivery system every day. Our National Association of Health Underwriters attends to the health insurance needs of millions of Americans in all 50 states. Our top two public policy objectives are: (1) reducing the number of uninsured Americans, and (2) reducing the cost of health insurance for businesses, families and individuals.

Health Insurance is a mechanism by which businesses and individuals choose to finance medical care. The cost of insurance continues to rise in double digit increases each year due to a combination of complex factors that include an aging and increasingly less healthy population, medical cost inflation, introduction of new and expensive technologies, prescription drugs, provider cost shifting from government payers and the cost of malpractice litigation. A health insurance coverage mandate also has a cost of compliance that contributes to the rising cost of insurance. A culmination of many well intended health insurance mandates add up to higher costs for the insured population. We are already seeing alarming numbers of employers and individuals dropping coverage, increasing deductibles and making other financially driven decisions to reduce costs in one of the worst economic recessions Colorado has faced.

We support HB 1154 which creates a mandate review process to give legislators unbiased information about the potential cost increases that result from health insurance coverage mandates. This allows legislators to make more informed decisions about specific mandates with information about how these unfunded mandates will affect insureds. The bill also imposes a one-year moratorium on the General Assembly from passing any new coverage mandates.

It is important to understand the financial impact a particular mandate will have on the cost of the insurance. The cost of complying with these health insurance mandates is passed directly on to businesses and individuals. As the cost of insurance increases, so do the number of people who can no longer afford insurance. When they drop out of the insured pool it fuels a cycle that spirals up costs for the remaining insured population.

We believe that there must be meaningful health care reform and that reform must be sustainable and have participants accept their responsibility as providers and consumers of health care services. We must embrace change that establishes measures to ensure a high quality, cost effective system that is financially viable, sustainable and fair. It must also allow for choice, and emphasizes wellness, prevention, education and consumer empowerment.

Please support HB 1154 and give businesses and individuals paying for health insurance a break from new mandates.

Click here for the Council for Affordable Health Insurance’s 2009 Mandate Report and click here for CSAHU’s white paper we are using with legislators.

Thank you for your consideration. For questions please contact Dorothy Marshall (303) 516-0522 or Sharlene Yabe (719) 210-2160.