Pritzker’s health insurance reforms clear another legislative hurdle
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) — Lawmakers passed the Governor’s plan for health insurance reform out of the Senate Insurance Committee Tuesday.
The measures passed on partisan lines and now heads to the Senate floor. Pritzker’s plan would make a list of changes to the health insurance industry that his office says will put “power back into the hands of patients and their doctors.”
“This bill is purely about consumer protection,” Senate Democrat Laura Fine said in committee. “We have insurance just because of the fact that you don’t know what’s going to happen to you on a daily basis. And usually when you need to use that insurance, you are at your most vulnerable. So in the state of Illinois, we want to ensure that when you are at the most vulnerable, your safety net is there to provide you with the coverage that you need.”
Illinois bill to reform health insurance industry one step closer to becoming law
The Healthcare Protection Act bans prior authorization for mental health treatments, which is a requirement from health insurance companies that the patient get the permission of their provider for a treatment their doctor already prescribed.
It would also ban step therapies for private insurance and Medicaid. Step therapy is the practice of requiring patients to try cheaper forms of treatments prior to trying more expensive options.
Pritzker also wants to crack down on “ghost networks,” or health insurance directories that are inflated with doctors who no longer practice in areas, or doctors who are no longer in network. Health insurance companies would be required to conduct audits on themselves every 90 days and report their findings to the Department of Insurance.
The part of the proposal that bans “junk insurance plans” was separated from the other proposal and put into another bill. Junk insurance plans are otherwise known as short-term limited duration plans, like health insurance plans people can buy when covered through an employer. Senate Republicans posed a lot of questions about this particular bill. They questioned claims from the Department of Insurance that these plans are often marketed deceptively.
Three Illinois cities will pay you thousands to move there
Senate Republican Dave Syverson asked Department of Insurance leadership why the department wasn’t cracking down on these companies.
“Either it’s happening and yet we’ve chosen not to go after them, which is irresponsible, or it’s not as bad as what it is,” Syverson (R-Rockford) said.
But Acting Director of the Department of Insurance and former Democratic Senator Ann Gillespie said the department does not have the power to enforce penalties in this particular area, but this law would help.
“Senator, the business model by its very nature is deceptive. And as long as it’s legal, there is very little that the department can do,” Gillespie said.
The bills now head to the Senate floor. If both bills pass, they will go back to the House of Representatives. The bill has already passed out of the House once.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
