Lawmakers representing communities in Colorado’s mountain resort region have sponsored a bill that could potentially lower the region’s infamously high health insurance rates, a report on Vail Daily says.
State Representatives Diane Mitsch Bush, Bob Rankin and Millie Hamner, with Senator Kerry Donovan, have all voiced their sponsorship of House Bill 1336. The bill, once enacted, would create a state study of the region’s insurance costs, and would gauge the feasibility of classifying the region as a single, cohesive geographic area for insurance purposes.
According to Mitsch Bush, the idea to classify Colorado’s mountain resort area as one insurance rating area came in 2013, during conversations with Colorado Insurance Commissioner Marguerite Salazar.
Notably, the bill directs the Colorado Division of Insurance to complete the study by Aug. 1.
“We need to find out what’s truly driving costs,” Senator Donovan asserted.
Donovan added that lawmakers and state officials need to hear from residents in the region about how the high insurance costs are affecting them.
“We aren’t all rich second-home owners,” Donovan pointed out. “We need to overcome those perceptions.”
On Mar. 24, a hearing over the bill will be held. Eagle County Commissioner Jill Ryan and other representatives of the other mountain resort counties will be invited to testify during the hearing.
Also invited is Avon-based mortgage broker Chris Neuswanger, whose campaign for equalized insurance premiums inspired the proposal of the bill. Neuswanger hopes to present to the hearing enough petition signatures to show to lawmakers the strong interest in adjusting insurance premiums in the region.
