Senator Nathan Johnson Files Legislation to Reduce Health Insurance Premiums

AUSTIN – Texas State Senator Nathan Johnson wants to stabilize and strengthen the health insurance market in Texas, to ensure access to that market, and decrease marketplace premiums by 15-30%. SB 1087, which Johnson filed this week, would establish a reinsurance program covering a pool of high-cost enrollees.

“Seven other states with similar programs have been able to entice additional insurers into the market, increase competition and consumer choice, lower premiums, and ensure that people with pre-existing health conditions have health insurance,” Johnson said. “This bill would achieve all of these, with no additional general revenue expenditures and without new government infrastructure.”

The reinsurance program will leverage the same assessment Texas has previously used for high-risk pools to bring in over $800 million a year in federal funds, stabilizing a market that covers more than one million Texans. Experts project that individual market premiums will drop by up to 30%.

“Coverage and choice up, costs go down: this is good policy,” Johnson concluded.

Senator Nathan Johnson was elected in 2018 to represent the economically and demographically diverse Texas Senate District 16. Johnson is a member of the Committees on Health & Human Services, Veteran Affairs & Border Security, Water & Rural Affairs, and Administration.

###