Recent legislative action by Governor David A. Paterson will make health insurance more affordable and improve New Yorkers’ access to health care, according to the Governor’s office.
On Wednesday, July 29, Paterson signed into law three Governor’s Program bills that will extend COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) health insurance for the unemployed from 18 to 36 months; require insurers to cover dependents up to the age of 29; and implement reforms to more efficiently deliver health care to consumers.
“We must take the necessary steps to improve our broken health care system,” Paterson said in a statement, noting that over 2.5 million New York State residents do not have health insurance, partly due to prohibitive costs. “By making insurance coverage more accessible, we bring people into the system before they need emergency treatment, reducing the overall cost of health care to the state,” he added.
Among other reforms, the legislation requires insurance providers to pay doctors and hospitals more quickly and protects them when insurers seek to recover so-called “overpayments.” Additionally, the laws establish a new external appeal standard for rare disease treatments.
The chair of the State Senate’s Insurance Committee, Senator Neil D. Breslin, who helped advance the legislation, called it “a significant step” toward health care reform and said it “is vitally needed in this economic climate.”
