February 29, 2008

The Healthy Washington Coalition has achieved the major milestone of having one of our priority pieces of legislation pass both the Senate and the House. The House passed the Insurance Rate Accountability bill today by a vote of 68-28. The bill passed the Senate several weeks ago.

This bill, which restores the authority of the Insurance Commissioner to regulate the rate setting of premiums in the individual market, is one of the most significant pieces of consumer protection legislation (along with the Prescription Privacy bill) that will be acted on by the legislature in 2008.

The bill has to go back to the Senate for concurrence because of amendments that were made to the legislation in the House. However, we do not anticipate a problem and look forward to this bill getting to the Governor’s desk within a week to 10 days. This is great news for Washington State health care consumers!