Action Alert: Stop health care mandates

Take action now: click here to email your representative. Tell them to oppose HB 202.

The Kentucky Chamber has long opposed health insurance mandates that raise premiums on employers. By carving out special benefits to a single provider group (chiropractors), HB 202 increases health care costs on small employers and is an unprecedented assault on the free market health care system.

Here’s what HB 202 does:

• Seeks a special classification for chiropractic services, dictating how benefits will be structured and limiting the ability for employers to make affordable choices.
• Dictates the maximum co-payment an individual must pay, making chiropractic services unique among all provider groups.
• Dictates the reimbursement rate paid for those chiropractic services, a protection not afforded to any other provider group. All chiropractic services will be reimbursed at no less than the current fee schedule in effect at the time the services or procedures are performed, as established by the Workers’ Compensation Medical Fee Schedule. If HB 202 passes, Kentucky would be the only state in the country to mandate reimbursement rates in this manner.
• Effectively requires by law an average minimum wage for chiropractors, setting not only today’s rates, but all future rates, while stripping the purchaser’s ability to negotiate in the free market.

We want to make clear our opposition to HB 202 is not an attack on chiropractors, who provide valuable services to their patients and are important small businesses in their own right. However, rising health care costs and uncertainty surrounding federal health care reform are already constraining an employer’s ability to create and retain jobs. HB 202 would make matters even worse, creating a slippery slope that would cause an onslaught of providers demanding similar privileges as chiropractors. Legislating reimbursement rates circumvent the private negotiation process, which employers rely on to control costs and provide health insurance.

HB 202 is expected to be considered by the House Banking and Insurance Committee on Wednesday, January 18 (see the list of  committee members here). Call (1-800-372-7181)  or email your representative and tell them to oppose HB 202.