2024
, what s i n store for
Reflecting on 2023 Gives Hints of What Could Be Coming This Election Year By Janet Trautwein COMPLIANCE AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS EXECUTIVE FOR WARNER PACIFIC
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s we head into a pivotal election year, forecasting the future of healthcarerelated laws, regulations, and regulatory compliance is on the minds of industry experts, including ours at Warner Pacific. And while we can’t predict exactly how it will all play out, 2023 has set a certain tone and themes that could carry over into 2024. Reflecting on the year, several important things have happened. Let’s start with the current political environment, because politics always color what has happened and what could happen. The year began and continued with unprecedented turmoil in U.S. House leadership. Kevin McCarthy became Speaker after the longest multi-ballot speaker election since 1859, only to be removed from his office later the same year at the hands of dissident members 16 | CALIFORNIA BROKER
of his caucus. He was greatly challenged from doing the kind of meaningful work a speaker of any party would normally be able to do, thanks to historically thin margins.
This affected what came out of the House in 2023 and whether it passed into law. There were a number of good things that House committees worked on all year long, many with bi-partisan support, that may still make it through in early 2024. For example: • Increased transparency measures for Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), who currently control nearly 80% of the prescription drug market and operate with little oversight from federal regulators, to more clearly see transactions. • Improvements to health savings accounts (HSAs) — from increasing contribution levels to expanding the definition of what qualifies as a highCalBrokerMag.com
deductible health plan, in order to give more people access to HSAs that help pay for outof-pocket expenses on a pre-tax basis. • Qualification of telemedicine, on a permanent basis, for high-deductible plans and HSAs, which could encourage people to get to the doctor early before health issues become more serious such as the flu turning into pneumonia. All this sets the stage for what to watch for from Republicans and Democrats. There’s the constant threat, of course, of legislators trying to cover federal costs with dollars currently excluded from taxation, including through the employer tax exclusion. Other key issues to watch include the cost of insulin and dialysis and end-stage renal disease. Insulin out-of-pocket costs are currently capped at $20 per month in Medicare. JANUARY 2024
