Insurers may not require Preauthorization for Prescription Medications

H.4540 would prohibit insurers licensed in South Carolina from requiring preauthorization for a prescription medicine or treatment unless the medicine or treatment differs from FDA approved methods. This may seem like a reasonable consumer protection but it is precisely this kind of insurer mandate that make it cost prohibitive for smaller insurers to compete in the state’s insurance market. As a result more mandates lead to a less competitive field dominated by a few large insurers, which in turn leads to higher prices. South Carolina already imposes 30 different health insurance coverage mandates. Lawmakers should be looking to remove these kinds of mandates and allow increased competition in the insurance market, they shouldn’t be putting further burdens on an overregulated sector of our economy.