Senator Debicella Proposes Reform to Lower Health Care Costs

Senator Dan Debicella (R-21) called for the State Senate to adopt his proposal to lower health care costs by allowing insurance companies to design policies that allow consumers to choose the types of state mandated coverage they need.

“One of the reasons health care is so expensive is that insurance companies are required under state law to cover a wide variety of things in all of the policies they sell here,” Senator Debicella said. “My proposal is all about introducing more consumer choice around the types of coverage and level of expense in their health care plan.”

Senator Debicella said several people are currently paying for things they will never use. “For example, single women are covered for prostate cancer screening under the current system. They are paying for something they will simply never need,” observed Senator Debicella on the floor of the Senate. “That is just one example of how well intentioned efforts to ensure that quality health care policies are sold in Connecticut has backfired. The result is higher costs for everyone. My legislation would have fixed this problem, and still ensure that Connecticut residents have access to the types of health coverage they want without paying for things they do not want,” said Senator Debicella.

Senator Debicella’s proposed legislation would have permitted health insurance providers to offer any state mandated benefits to consumers as optional benefits that could be purchased separately, individually or in any combination. Under this proposed legislation, insurance companies still would have been required to make all state mandated benefits available for purchase by their policy holders. The state mandates range from common procedures to obscure diseases impacting only a small part of the population.

Under the proposal, consumers would get to choose several ways to buy insurance. Consumers would have three different options:
1. Consumers could choose to continue as they are, with all mandates included in the basic package.
2. Consumers could choose a cheaper “base” package, with an “optional” package containing the approximately 75 state mandates. Consumers could choose to be covered for the additional diseases as a package.
3. Consumers could choose a cheaper “base” package, with an “a la carte” approach where consumers could choose which specific diseases they would wished to be covered for.

“By increasing consumer choice in insurance coverage, we will lower costs while mandating that everyone has the option to get coverage they need,” said Senator Debicella.

The State Senate defeated Senator Debicella’s proposal on a 11-24 party line vote. Opponents said they feared that consumers would be overwhelmed by the choices and might fail to choose coverage they actually need. Senator Debicella responded by saying he trusted consumers to make decisions for themselves.

“Of course, I am disappointed that the State Senate declined to pass my common sense legislation to lower health care costs in a way that still ensures Connecticut residents and businesses access to quality coverage. However, I know that it often takes more than one year to get even the best ideas enacted into state law, and I will continue to advocate for this reform. Not everyone needs every type of health care coverage mandated by state law, and I am convinced that the legislature will eventually agree to let people save money by choosing the types of coverage that best suits their needs,” said Senator Debicella.