Canty Enacts Reforms to Make Healthcare More Affordable, Expand Access to Care

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Illinois families will have access to better and more affordable healthcare coverage under new laws backed by state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, aiming to reduce costs and hold big insurance companies accountable.

“When good healthcare is out of reach, people are forced to compromise on lifesaving prescriptions and vital visits to the doctor. They have to postpone essential surgeries and skip potentially lifesaving checkups. The Healthcare Protection Act will crack down on insurance gimmicks and high premiums and help ensure people no longer have to make unfortunate choices like that,” Canty said. “Every person in Illinois without exception deserves affordable
healthcare, and I won’t stop working until they have that.”

The Canty-backed House Bill 5395 and House Bill 2499 were signed into law Wednesday, delivering a series of major reforms to make healthcare coverage better and more affordable. The new Healthcare Protection Act would create a rate review process requiring insurance companies to justify premium increases, and empowering state watchdogs to reject unwarranted hikes that simply pad profits.

Additionally, the measure curbs gimmicks insurance companies use to deny access to medically necessary treatments, procedures, and prescription medications, including step therapy—where insurance companies require a patient to ‘try and fail’ with cheap, ineffective treatments before covering the prescribed treatment or medication. Under the Healthcare Protection Act, doctors and patients will now be empowered to make important medical decisions—not insurance companies.

These measures also stop insurance companies from selling inadequate short-term healthcare plans that provide little or no coverage.