Thursday, July 3, 2008

New Health Care Mandates in the Keystone State

PA passes autism mandates, pushes "slacker mandate"

By Nathan Benefield

Categories: Insurance Regulation, Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania General Assembly just passed a bill to require insurance companies to cover autism services, along with colorectal cancer screening. Despite the fact these mandate are known to drive up the cost of insurance, and the number of uninsured, the bill was passed with a nearly unanimous vote (49-1 in the Senate and 203-0 in the House). Another bill, creating a "slacker mandate", would mandate coverage of adult children up to age 30, with no dependants of their own, on their parents' plans.

Read the Commonwealth Foundation's commentary on these new mandates.