The U.S. Senate this week voted down a CMA-opposed bill (S. 1955) that would have stripped away almost all state-enacted protections for health insurance consumers and physicians, including California’s prompt pay law and the Knox-Keene Act. Though the bill’s alleged purpose was to make insurance affordable for small businesses, CMA believes that eliminating hard-won state regulatory protections, including fair limitations on surcharges for those who are ill or have preexisting conditions, will actually have the opposite effect, making health insurance unaffordable for most older or sicker patients.

“California law provides some of the strongest managed care checks and balances in the country. These laws have helped to ensure patients have access to appropriate care in California and any weakening of these laws would be viewed with great concern from the physician community,” wrote CMA CEO Jack Lewin, M.D., and CMA president Michael Sexton, M.D., in a letter to the bill’s author, Senator Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.). “Many of these laws were enacted in response to widespread abuse by plans and insurers. Physicians will not want to participate in plans without these basic protections.”

Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, 415/882-3376 or emcneil@cmanet.org.