Govt Mandates Increase Healthcare Costs.

"Govt Mandates Increase Healthcare Costs." That's not a bill title. That's a bumper sticker. Most bill titles describe what the bill does. This one tells you what to think about it before you've read a single word.

The "mandates" in question are health insurance coverage requirements... things like covering mammograms, mental health treatment, diabetes supplies, childhood vaccinations. The bill creates a one-in-one-out rule: any new coverage requirement has to repeal an existing one. Want to require insurers to cover autism screening? Pick something else to drop. The bill also requires the legislature to appropriate money equal to the cost of any new mandate to the State Treasurer and the State Health Plan... which effectively guarantees that no new coverage requirements will ever pass.

It also includes a sunset provision requiring every existing health benefit mandate to be reviewed and reauthorized. Coverage requirements that have been on the books for decades... things most people don't even think about because they're just assumed... would need to be actively renewed or they'd expire.

The bill passed the Senate 30-15 on straight party lines. The title doesn't say "Review Health Insurance Coverage Requirements" or "Limit New Insurance Mandates." It says "Government Mandates Increase Healthcare Costs." That's the sponsor's opinion presented as a fact, printed right there on the legislation. The word "mandates" makes guaranteed coverage for cancer screenings sound like government overreach.