Legislative Wrap-up
| March 18, 2019 |
| The 54th Legislative Session has ended. With over 1600 pieces of legislation submitted, there were some very important bills passed and sent to the governor’s desk, and some very important bills not passed as well. You all know by now that there will be some tax increases, and an increase to our minimum wage law, as well as very much needed raises to our teachers. But one thing you may not have heard which is just as important is that if the governor signs HB 100, we will no longer have Columbus Day, but instead, we will have Indigenous People’s Day. In addition to that important piece of legislation, I have updated our log and indicated which of the legislation we were following passed and has been sent to the governor’s desk. Please click here to download that log. As far as the Health Insurance industry goes there were some very important bills put to rest that may have been laying the foundation for Single Payer, but there were also several bills that have been sent to the governor adding more mandated benefits to our health insurance policies which will increase premiums. We did get Short Term and Limited Benefit Plans defined and regulated so that there won’t be crummy plans allowed, but we did not get legislation to stop Surprise Billing passed. In Insurance Code Clean up bills the most important thing to note is the change to an agent allowing their license to lapse. We used to have 5 years to reinstate our license without having to re-test, but that was reduced to 1 year. However, good news, we can now spend up to $100 on gifts and prizes per customer. On the Property and Casualty side, the biggest change was allowing financial responsibility information to be maintained electronically rather than original documents kept in your vehicle. This was a very busy session for major changes in our state but luckily not so much in our industry. |