Faver Dias Enacts Reforms to Make Healthcare More Affordable, Expand Access to Care

GRAYSLAKE, Ill. – Illinois families will have access to better and more affordable health care coverage under new laws backed by state Rep. Laura Faver Dias, D-Grayslake, aiming to reduce costs and hold big insurance companies accountable.

“Guaranteeing healthcare for every person in our community, regardless of income, is not only the right thing to do, it is key to building a stronger future,” Faver Dias said. “Nobody should have to
choose between seeing their doctor and buying warm clothes for their kids. However, this winter some parents will be forced to make that choice. This measure takes us substantially closer to ensuring no one has to make a decision like that again.”

The Faver Dias-backed House Bill 5395 and House Bill 2499 were signed into law Wednesday, delivering a series of major reforms to make health care coverage better and more affordable. The new Health Care 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.