The Senate will be taking up legislation next week that would eliminate all the progress states have made to ensure that consumers have adequate health coverage. The Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act, S. 1955, pushed by Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi (R), would take away the states’ power to regulate health insurance.  Insurance companies, instead of state-elected legislators, would now decide the benefits that consumers should have when they purchase health care.  States would have no recourse to protect their own residents and they would lose any incentive to enact protective health insurance laws in the future. S. 1955 also would preempt stronger state laws that limit the ability of insurers to vary premiums based on health status, age, gender and geography.  For many older, sicker Americans and those with complex health needs and disabilities, this would price them out of the health insurance market, undermining the stated purpose of the legislation.

The Enzi bill panders to powerful corporate trade organizations that want to sell insurance packages to their members but don’t want to be required to offer the benefits mandated by states.  Anti-union groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Associated Builders and Contractors and more are all pushing to pass S. 1955 to attract new members with low-cost, low-benefit insurance.

But their gain will be our loss. Without the protections your state has put in place, your health care befits are at risk.  Please take action today to stop this bill from cutting health care benefits.