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Legislature should resist new health care mandates and embrace reforms

By Danny Seiden and Todd Sanders, Guest Commentary //January 21, 2025//[read_meter]

Deposit Photos

Legislature should resist new health care mandates and embrace reforms

By Danny Seiden and Todd Sanders, Guest Commentary //January 21, 2025//[read_meter]

This time last year, we teamed up to encourage the governor and Legislature to fight new health care mandates and take a hands-off approach to new regulations that would increase costs to employers and hardworking Arizonans. 

Danny Seiden (Photo by Jennifer Stewart)

For the most part, the Legislature did just that, making incremental changes to improve the health care delivery system in Arizona without burdening providers, job creators, and families. We wrote last year in response to public remarks that signaled a desire to make dramatic changes in the marketplace that inevitably increase prices. We have all felt the impact of inflation and market-driven cost increases to insurance, so it was critical that our lawmakers not exacerbate the problem.

As we begin the 2025 legislative session and assess the economic environment, Arizona is arguably better positioned to continue its employment growth and capital investment than at any other point in state history. Leadership throughout the years laid the groundwork with aggressive policies to attract new companies and grow existing businesses, which has led to historic growth in our manufacturing sector, the diversification of industry, and explosive investment in chip manufacturing in Arizona.

Todd Sanders

The success we have enjoyed is not accidental, nor is it guaranteed. Legislators and the governor must be careful not to follow the misguided path other states have taken in overregulating the health care marketplace, increasing insurance costs, and negatively impacting overall affordability. 

We have watched other states attack ERISA protections, which are federal minimum standards for private sector health plans. ERISA standards historically impacted unions the most, but they have an equal consequence for self-insured businesses of all sizes.

Additionally, new mandates on select sectors of the healthcare delivery system will drive up costs for employers, employees, and families. Mandates in one sector of health care ripple throughout the entire system.

We encourage lawmakers to take a thoughtful look at all legislation that will directly impact the health care delivery system. Let’s learn from the mistakes of our neighboring states – and even those a coast away and remember that government is best and most effective when it intervenes with a light touch, if at all. Let’s resist new mandates and embrace reforms that will benefit everyone and improve the overall delivery of health care in Arizona. 

Danny Seiden is the executive director of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Todd Sanders is the executive director of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. 

 

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