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States reviewing their health insurance laws under new environment

Health Care Reform and Policy
by Tom Handley
States reviewing their health insurance laws under new environment
States reviewing their health insurance laws under new environment

The ways in which insurance companies across the country are able to deal with health coverage has changed significantly in the last few years, and that's just on a national level. Now, all the changes to federal law have likewise prompted a number of states to revisit their own coverage laws, and as such there could be more alterations in the offing for many health insurers.

For example, in the state of New Hampshire, it seems lawmakers are now turning their attentions to make residents more able to find care more easily under their current insurers, but this isn't always easy, according to a report from the Associated Press. As such, it appears likely that the state might change its rules to include more types of care, rather than who provides it. Likewise, Washington state, Arkansas, Minnesota, and California have also begun reconsidering the ways in which their own laws will impact consumers' access to adequate health care.

John Weis, who works for the health plan software and consulting company Quest Analytics, told the news agency that states are now beginning to realize that their current requirements for insurers aren't enough to get consumers the kind of coverage they need, and just in the last six months - thanks in part to the increased awareness of problems faced when it comes to health insurance - have consumers really begun to complain about access to care. Experts now agree that in the past, state laws just didn't do enough to guarantee a broader number of choices provided by policy issuers.

Another aspect of the problem
Further, the fact of the matter is that many parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were implemented so quickly that states might not have had adequate time to properly react to them with accompanying legislation, the report said. Now many are finally beginning to concentrate on the issue after wanting to do so for some time but not knowing how to react to the seemingly ever-changing landscape.

Health insurers will have to keep a close eye on all such proceedings going forward, particularly when it comes to states in which they operate. However, even others might soon adopt similar policies to those already on their way to being enacted, and that in turn may change the ways in which insurers must operate overall.

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