New legislation introduced in the North Carolina House and Senate takes a big swing at the state’s healthcare cost problem.
Senate Bill 24 and House Bill 46 aim to address the state’s “intolerably high healthcare costs,” by significantly reining in government healthcare mandates.
The legislation was authored by authored by Jim Burgin, Amy Galey, and Benton Sawrey in the Senate. Identical legislation was authored by Kyle Hall, Donny Lambeth, Eric Paré, and Alan Chesser in the House.
North Carolina has over 50 government healthcare mandates. This is one of the biggest reasons the state is the most expensive for healthcare in the country.
Workers here pay close to $4,800 a year to get employer sponsored insurance coverage for them and their spouse. That jumps to more than $7,180 a year if you want to insure your kids too.
Under this legislation, if any new government healthcare mandates are passed, an equal number must also be repealed to help offset the cost.
The bill also protects taxpayers and the State Health Plan by making sure that any new mandate also contains funding to pay for its added cost.
Government healthcare mandates are a hidden tax that force businesses and workers to pay for health insurance do not need, want, or use.
Senate Bill 24 hits the breaks on any new mandates.
That is welcome news to millions of families grappling month-to-month with our nation-high healthcare costs.