FAIIR Act advances through House Insurance Committee
HB 471 would give the Department of Insurance the authority to reject unreasonable rate increases to health insurance plans

SPRINGFIELD, IL- Today, State Representative Bob Morgan presented House Floor Amendment No. 1 to HB 471 before the House Insurance Committee. On a 13-4 vote, the committee recommended the amendment be adopted on the House floor.

At present, the Department of Insurance can deem a health insurance rate increase unreasonable but has no authority to reject the increase.

Previously filed under HB 815, the Freedom from Aggressive Insurance Increases Review (FAIIR) Act would give the Department of Insurance the ability to review and approve health insurance rates in Illinois.

The legislation has support from a wide range of groups including Protect Our Care- Illinois, a coalition of over 145 health care consumers, providers, and advocates.

“While the Affordable Care Act provided some strong consumer protections against unfair premium rate increases, we believe that the state of Illinois could be doing more to protect consumers — and HB 471 is a great first step. With this piece of legislation, Illinois would be joining 37 other states who have stronger consumer protections against unreasonable rate increases. We know that states with stronger rate review authority experience lower health insurance premiums than states like Illinois who have file-and-use policies,” said Kelsie Landers of EverThrive Illinois, a Protect Our Care -Illinois member

Representative Morgan looks forward to ushering FAIIR through the legislative process. Lowering health insurance costs in Illinois is his top priority.

“With the advancement of HB 471, Illinois will now have the ability to hold insurance providers accountable for the rate increases they propose. We are a big step closer to providing relief for working families,” said Representative Morgan.

The FAIIR act will now move to the entire Illinois House for consideration.