December 10, 2019 TAHU Weekly News Updates from the Capitol...

Last week Texas Speaker Dennis Bonnen created a special “Select” Committee on Statewide Healthcare Costs to study the issue over the Interim and make recommendations before the next session. Texans have not seen the promised savings from the Affordable Care Act and the need for focus on this issue is urgent as the US uninsured rate hit a four year high this year with Texas being #1 (over 17M uninsured). We are glad to see that the committee includes physicians (Chairman G. Bonnen, Rep. Oliverson), lawyers (Vice Chair S. Thompson and Rep. Lucio), and health insurance agents (Rep. Hefner) who have the knowledge and expertise to find a solution. We look forward to working with them and sharing our experience on the front lines every day. The details of the committee members and its specific charge are HERE. TAHU will look to engage with the committee members as industry experts as they begin to study their charges. 

The standing Committees were also given interim charges to focus on between now and the beginning of the next legislature. The House Insurance Committee was directed to monitor several important pieces of new legislation including Senate Bill 1264 banning surprise billing, House Bill 2536 regarding insulin pricing transparency, Senate Bill 1852 regarding short term, limited duration health plan disclosures, and Senate Bill 1940 authorizing TDI to recreate a Hugh risk pool should federal funds become available to do so. A new charge to study the adequacy of the states insurance laws on regulating the introduction of insured tech products into the insurance market was also issued. This will include the impact of “big data, blockchain, Internet of things, and artificial intelligence technologies on industry practices.” A regulatory sandbox program will also be considered.

Questions? Contact your TAHU lobbyists at:

Mike Meroney                                               
Shannon Meroney
512-499-8880 (office) 
512-731-6615 (Shannon’s mobile)
Shannon@MeroneyPublicAffairs.com
512-589-2531 (Mike’s mobile)
Mike@MeroneyPublicAffairs.com