ALEXANDRIA, VA --At a time when the number of people without health coverage is growing, it is important to recognize that mandates make health insurance more expensive and that some employers or individuals will not be able to afford it. The Council for Affordable Health Insurance's (CAHI) independent team of actuaries has estimated that, depending on where one lives, mandates can increase the cost of a policy between 20 and 45 percent.

CAHI closely monitors state mandate legislation nationwide; and we see mandate "trends" developing long before many others. CAHI's Director of Research and Policy Victoria Bunce and Government Affairs Specialist Vlasta Prikazsky have updated the 2005 version and released "Trends in State Mandated Benefits, 2006," which identifies some of those trends: which state mandates are growing in popularity among state legislators and in which states.

To learn more about current trends in state mandated benefits, please go to CAHI's "Trends in State Mandated Benefits, 2006," at www.cahi.org; and while you're there CAHI also has an existing publication "Trends in State Mandated Benefits, 2006" that outlines each mandate, which states have the mandated benefit, and the percentage range of how much each benefit adds to a cost of a policy.

Founded in 1992, CAHI is a non-profit research and advocacy association whose mission is to develop and promote free market solutions to America's health care challenges. CAHI's membership includes health insurance companies (active in the individual, small group, HSA and senior markets), small businesses, physicians, actuaries and insurance brokers.

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