By Rosson S.B. No. 182
74R3396 PB-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to prohibiting discrimination by certain insurers in
1-3 issuing health insurance policies to women with fibrocystic breast
1-4 conditions; imposing penalties.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 21, Insurance Code, is
1-7 amended by adding Article 21.21-6 to read as follows:
1-8 Art. 21.21-6. FIBROCYSTIC BREAST CONDITIONS. (a) In this
1-9 article, "insurer" means an insurer who delivers or issues for
1-10 delivery or renews any insurance in this state, including any group
1-11 policy, contract, or certificate of health insurance or evidence of
1-12 coverage delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed in this state.
1-13 The term includes a group hospital service corporation under
1-14 Chapter 20 of this code and a health maintenance organization under
1-15 the Texas Health Maintenance Organization Act (Chapter 20A,
1-16 Vernon's Texas Insurance Code).
1-17 (b) An insurer, solely because an individual has been
1-18 diagnosed with or has a history of a fibrocystic breast condition,
1-19 may not:
1-20 (1) deny coverage to the individual;
1-21 (2) refuse to renew a policy of insurance covering the
1-22 individual;
1-23 (3) cancel a policy of insurance covering the
1-24 individual;
2-1 (4) limit the amount, extent, or kind of coverage
2-2 available to the individual; or
2-3 (5) charge the individual or a group to which the
2-4 individual belongs a different rate for the same coverage.
2-5 (c) An insurer who violates this article commits an unfair
2-6 and deceptive practice as defined by Article 21.21 of this code and
2-7 is subject to the penalties imposed under that article.
2-8 SECTION 2. Section 14(b), Texas Health Maintenance
2-9 Organization Act (Article 20A.14(b), Vernon's Texas Insurance
2-10 Code), is amended to read as follows:
2-11 (b) Articles 21.21, 21.21A, 21.21-2, <and> 21.21-3, and
2-12 21.21-6, Insurance Code, and Chapter 122, Acts of the 57th
2-13 Legislature, Regular Session, 1961 (Article 21.21-1, Vernon's Texas
2-14 Insurance Code), apply to health maintenance organizations that
2-15 offer both basic and single health care coverages and to basic and
2-16 single health care plans and the evidence of coverage under those
2-17 plans, except to the extent that the commissioner determines that
2-18 the nature of health maintenance organizations and health care
2-19 plans and evidence of coverage renders any provision of those
2-20 articles clearly inappropriate.
2-21 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
2-22 applies only to an insurance policy or an evidence of coverage that
2-23 is delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on or after January
2-24 1, 1996. A policy or evidence of coverage that is delivered,
2-25 issued for delivery, or renewed before January 1, 1996, is governed
2-26 by the law as it existed immediately before the effective date of
2-27 this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
3-1 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.