Healthcare Mandates Are Driving Up Costs. Texas Should Rein Them In.
Texas families are facing a healthcare affordability crisis.
The average employer-sponsored family health plan now costs nearly $27,000 a year, roughly one-third of Texas' median household income, according to Texas 2036, Even more troubling, 63% of Texans say they have delayed or skipped healthcare in the past year because of cost.
Yet year after year, lawmakers are asked to make health insurance even more expensive by adding another government mandate. The Texas legislature rejects the majority of government mandates on Texas businesses and families, yet leads the nation in the most health insurance mandates.
It needs to stop.
Mandates added to your health plan get added to your premium. Texans are already paying more for coverage, and new mandates from Austin shouldn't make that worse without anyone voting on the bill.
While an individual mandate may sound reasonable, mandates don't exist individually. They accumulate, and so do their costs.
In fact, Texas ranks third in the nation for expensive, unfunded government healthcare mandates, ahead of California, maintaining approximately 50 state healthcare mandates beyond the Affordable Care Act.
Texas has recognized this problem for decades. Since 2001, state law has required the Texas Department of Insurance to collect cost and utilization data on mandated health benefits, and there is a reason we track that information: mandates cost money.
Many Texas legislators proudly describe themselves as pro-free market, pro-consumer choice and opposed to excessive government regulation. Healthcare should be no exception.
Lawmakers should reject new mandates unless there is an extraordinary justification for imposing another cost on Texans. They should review existing mandates and roll back those that are outdated, unnecessary, or unnecessarily expensive. And they should give families and employers more opportunities to choose affordable coverage.
Healthcare affordability won't be solved overnight. But Texas can stop making the problem worse.
Rein in the mandates. Roll back unnecessary requirements. Give Texans more choices. And start bringing healthcare costs down.