Please contact your State Senator and State Representative and ask them not to sign on to two bills (LRB 1529 and LRB 0373) that would undermine insurance coverage of mental health parity, autism spectrum disorder, contraception, cochlear implants, breast reconstruction, HIV/AIDS treatment, child immunization, diabetes treatment and other mandates currently in Wisconsin law.
These bills are promoted by State Senator Leah Vukmir and State Representative John Nygren.
LRB (Legislative Reference Bureau) 1529 applies only to the individual insurance market and would apply only to a subset of these purchasers: (1) the person is under 36; (2) the family income is below 300 percent of FPL; (3) the person is eligible for continuation coverage (COBRA or Wisconsin’s equivalent); or (4) the person is employed but the employer does not offer employer group health coverage. The bill would require that insurers provide purchasers with information about the costs and benefits of each mandate and would allow individuals to purchase “ala carte” insurance; picking and choosing from among the mandated benefits. The result would likely be to increase the costs for those individuals who want to have coverage for mandated services making insurance less affordable for those who need it the most.
LRB 0373 would allow out-of-state health insurance companies to offer plans in Wisconsin that comply with their own state’s health insurance coverage mandates (instead of Wisconsin’s). Once such a plan comes into Wisconsin with a more limited set of covered services all Wisconsin insurers would be allowed to offer matching plans. This effectively makes “mandates” meaningless.
Both are ways around current mandates which have provided important protections for consumers. They do not kill the mandates, but they provide ways in which insurance companies can get around them and legally NOT provide insurance coverage for currently mandated services.
Here is a sample message you can email, call or write to your State Senator and Representative:
Sample message:
I am calling/writing to ask you not to support LRB 1529 and LRB 0373. These bills would undermine current consumer protections in Wisconsin’s insurance market and would also lead to increased costs for people who have medical conditions for which mandated coverage is now available. LRB 1592 would promote a “death spiral” in insurance markets by siphoning the healthiest people into bare bones plans and leaving insurance unaffordable for the rest. LRB 0373 would allow insurance companies to sell plans to employers that would exclude what previous legislators have deemed as essential minimal coverage and create a “race to the bottom” of health care coverage. People who are unfortunate to work for employers who chose to provide the cheapest plans that don’t comply with current Wisconsin law may have to pay out of pocket for medical needs.
If you do not know who your legislators are (and remember many have changed since last year), please check the website below:
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx
Just type in your address and it will identify your legislators.
NASW WI worked for ten years to obtain mental health parity coverage. We cannot allow these bills, which would effectively undermine parity protection, to be passed!
For more information call Marc Herstand at the NASW WI office at 608-257-6334.