Hearing Aid Coverage SB 151

Montana Legislature alert. (I'll add this to all post that are very strictly about the Legislature for those not interested.)<br />nWith the Montana Legislature in session I have been paging through the <a href="http://laws.leg.mt.gov/pls/laws07/LAW0217W$BAIV.return_all_bills">bills proposed</a> and a few caught my eye. Here is one.<br />n<br />n<a href="http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2007/billhtml/SB0151.htm" >SB 151</a><br />n<br />nMandatory hearing aid coverage in health insurance<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Section 1. Insurance coverage for hearing aids. (1) Each group or individual disability policy, certificate of insurance, or membership contract that is delivered, issued for delivery, renewed, extended, or modified in this state must provide coverage of hearing aids fitted and dispensed by an audiologist licensed by this state.</blockquote><br />n<br />nEverybody is always complaining about the cost of health insurance and this is the reason why. More things are made mandatory all the time. This will just cause the cost of health insurance policies to rise even more. I am not going to begin to solve the health care problems in the US here, but making the price of insurance policies go higher isn't going to answer the problem, unless your goal is to drive the price of the insurance policies so high that nobody can afford it and then move to government health care, than this makes sense.<br />n<br />nRefereed to the Senate Business, Labor, and Economic Affairs Committee. <br />n<br />nUPDATE: Hearing set for 01/16/2007