September 30, 2025

AI Industry Looking to Spend Big on State Races Next Year & More

AI Industry Spending Big to Block State Regulations The AI industry has launched three super PACs in recent weeks that could spend over $100 million largely on statewide races next year. The industry views state regulation, like Colorado’s first-in-the-nation comprehensive AI law passed last year, as its biggest threat. ( PLURIBUS NEWS ) AI Personhood Ban Introduced in OH A bill ( HB 469 ) introduced in Ohio...

September 30, 2025

Rural Healthcare Special Session in ND & More

Special Session on Rural Healthcare Coming in ND North Dakota’s legislature intends to form a new interim committee and hold a special session to allocate $500 million in federal funding for rural healthcare over the next five years. A survey of healthcare providers and the public by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services identified the recruitment and retention of rural healthcare workers as...

September 30, 2025

State Legislators Target Prior Authorization

People hate to wait in line. So is it any wonder that this year state legislators have targeted prior authorization , the policy mandating that patients wait for medical services until insurance companies sign off on them? Long derided by both patients and physicians alike, prior authorization raises the stakes on our natural, human dislike of uncertainty by combining it with a major source of our modern anxieties,...

September 23, 2025

Proposed Changes to CA’s Insurance Rate Filing Intervenor Process

CA Insurance Commissioner Seeking Reforms to Intervenor Process California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara (D) announced he wants to make changes to the foundational insurance law approved by the state’s voters in 1988, Proposition 103, including to its intervenor process, which allows groups to participate in the rate filing process on behalf of consumers. Lara’s proposed changes would clarify how intervenors...

September 23, 2025

State Lawmakers’ Concern with AI-Based Home Rental Pricing

Nearly Half of States Target AI-Based Home Rental Pricing in 2025 Lawmakers introduced bills aimed at restricting the use of artificial intelligence in setting housing rental prices in 23 states this year, part of a larger trend of legislation targeting the use of AI in price setting in general. The measures include a proposed ban on rent algorithms in Colorado ( HB 1004 ) vetoed by Gov. Jared Polis (D) in May, and...

September 23, 2025

Multiple Health-Related Bills on Gov’s Desk in CA

Several Health-Related Bills Awaiting Gov’s Action in CA California lawmakers passed several health-related bills in the final days of the session. They include SB 40 , which would cap the monthly out-of-pocket expense for insulin at $35; SB 41 , which would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from steering patients to specific pharmacies; SB 306 , which would eliminate prior authorization requirements for services...

September 23, 2025

State Legislatures Continue to Tackle AI Use in Healthcare

On Sept. 8, California’s Legislature sent Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) a bill that’s been called “a glimpse into how the next generation of regulation may shape the future of AI development and deployment in healthcare.” AB 489 , by Assemblywoman Mia Bonta (D), is aimed at outlawing artificial intelligence from misrepresenting itself as a health professional. “Californians deserve truth, honesty...

September 09, 2025

CA Policymakers Zero in on Chatbots

Chatbot Bills Near Passage in CA A pair of bills aimed at protecting minors from harm by chatbots are nearing passage in California. Of the two, tech groups favor SB 243 , which would allow citizens to sue for damages caused by AI chatbot companions, over the more sweeping AB 1064 , which would require entities that make chatbots available to users to implement protocols to ensure they don’t encourage minors to...

September 09, 2025

Special Session on Safety Net Coming in NM

NM Gov Calls Special Session to Bolster Safety Net New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) announced a special session in October to bolster safety net programs in response to the federal spending cuts signed into law by President Trump in July. Among other things, state lawmakers are expected to address rural healthcare access and ensuring health care exchange premiums remain affordable for those who lose Medicaid...

September 09, 2025

‘Debanking’ Draws GOP Lawmakers’ Attention

Political “debanking,” the practice of banks restricting or closing customers’ accounts for political or religious reasons, has once again become a hot topic , thanks to President Donald Trump and lawmakers in several Republican-governed states. Conservatives appear to have been concerned about the practice since at least 2013, when the Obama administration launched Operation Choke Point , an initiative...

August 26, 2025

Possible Changes Coming to CO AI Law & More

CO Lawmakers Tweak Last Year’s First-In-Nation AI Law In a special session that began last week, Colorado Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez (D) introduced legislation ( SB 4 a ) that would make significant changes to the artificial intelligence law he led to passage last year ( SB 205 [2024 ). That first-in-the-nation law raised concerns that it was too restrictive and would stifle AI development, and Rodriguez...

August 26, 2025

State Scramble to Replace Expiring Federal Health Subsidies & More

States Seek Ways to Replace Expiring Federal Health Subsidies Policymakers in California, Colorado, Maryland and other states are considering ways to backfill pandemic-era federal health insurance subsidies expiring at the end of this year. Since states don’t have the resources to replace all that federal funding, health insurance premiums are likely to soar next year. ( PLURIBUS NEWS ) NH Expands Access for...

August 26, 2025

Lawmakers Aim to Cut Utility Returns

The price of electricity has risen faster than inflation since 2022, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects that trend to continue through 2026 . In the past year, the cost of electricity has jumped 5.8%, according to the consumer price index for June 2025 , more than double the inflation rate for all goods and services. But while consumers are feeling the pain, utility companies are profiting...

August 19, 2025

Trump’s ‘Debanking’ Executive Order

Trump’s ‘Debanking’ Order Raises Questions for Lenders Days after accusing JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America of discriminating against him and other conservatives, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Treasury Department and bank regulators to ensure that lenders aren’t denying services to customers based on political or religious grounds, a practice known as “debanking...

August 19, 2025

Tech Industry’s Battle against AI Regulation in CA & More

Tech Groups Battling AI Regulation in CA Tech industry groups including the Business Software Alliance, the Consumer Technology Association and the Chamber of Progress are stepping up their lobbying efforts in opposition to a slew of California bills aimed at regulating artificial intelligence as lawmakers in the state return from their summer recess. The industry appears to be faring well this year, with only about...

August 19, 2025

States with Legal Sports Betting Eye Prop Bets

Seven years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act , states continue to wrestle with how best to regulate sports betting, an industry that now generates more than $10 billion in revenue annually nationwide. Legalized sports betting appears to have powered an increased interest in proposition, or prop, betting , in which bettors wager on an individual athlete’s...

August 13, 2025

Proposed Credit Property Insurance Rate Cuts in SC

SC Proposes Rate Cuts for Some Credit Property Insurance South Carolina’s Department of Insurance plans to cut the rates for some credit property insurance, which lenders sometimes require to protect personal property put up as collateral for loans. The department issued a bulletin stating that it was proposing “to hold the rate for household goods—single interest coverage at the 2025 level and to...

August 13, 2025

State Efforts to Make Data Centers Pay More for Energy, Veto of Gig Worker Portable Benefits Bill in WI & More

States Eying Higher Electricity Rates for Data Centers At least a dozen states are considering ways to make data centers pay more for their power, with evidence mounting that data center demand is driving up rates for other commercial, industrial and residential customers. Lawmakers in Oregon, a data center hot spot , passed legislation in June calling for state regulators to establish new power rates for data centers...

August 13, 2025

WI Gov’s Veto of Insurance Reg Exemption for Direct Primary Care Doctors

Evers Vetoes Insurance Reg Exemption for Direct Primary Care Doctors Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed a bill ( SB 4 ) that would have exempted primary care doctors who provide care to patients who are billed directly and pay a monthly membership fee from regulation as part of the insurance industry. Evers said in his veto message that the measure failed to provide sufficient protections for patients receiving care...

August 13, 2025

State Lawmakers Seek to Regulate AI Pricing

A few months ago we reported on state legislation targeting “predictive pricing,” the use of “data analytics, machine learning and algorithms to anticipate market demand and adjust prices in real time.” Some of those measures are progressing through the legislative process, while new ones have also been introduced, suggesting that algorithmic pricing legislation may have become a new frontier in...

July 30, 2025

CA Completes Review of First Wildfire Risk Model

CA Regulators Complete Review of Wildfire Risk Model California’s Department of Insurance has completed a review of the state’s first wildfire catastrophe model, which property/casualty insurers can now begin using to assess wildfire risk when setting rates. The major change to the ratemaking process is part of a new regulatory framework created to address a homeowners insurance crisis in the state, with...

July 30, 2025

Trump Administration’s State Regulation-Unfriendly ‘AI Action Plan’ & More

Trump Administration’s ‘AI Action Plan’ Targets State AI Regulation The Trump administration released an “AI Action Plan,” aimed at speeding the development of artificial intelligence in the United States, including by removing “red tape and onerous regulation.” Among other things the plan recommends that federal agencies with “AI-related discretionary programs...consider...

July 29, 2025

More States Grant Unemployment Benefits to Striking Workers

In the span of just 36 days this spring and summer, the number of states offering unemployment benefits to striking workers doubled—to four. New Jersey was the first to offer such benefits, beginning in 2018 . New York followed in 2020 . Then Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) signed SB 5041 by Sen. Marcus Riccelli (D) on May 19, establishing unemployment insurance benefits for striking workers in the Evergreen...

July 23, 2025

New Front in ESG War & CA’s First Fine for Violation of Crypto Law

Developing Anti-‘Debanking’ Trend in Red States? A new front appears to have opened in the ongoing battle over environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. In March Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed the Transparency in Financial Services Act ( SB 1027 ), prohibiting financial institutions with over $100 billion in assets from denying services for ideological reasons, a practice known as “debanking...

July 23, 2025

FL’s Bid to Expand Health Workforce with Medicaid Funding

FL Requests Medicaid Waiver to Bolster Health Workforce Florida is seeking a federal waiver to use Medicaid funding to expand its health care workforce, a plan that could be adopted by other states. The Sunshine State aims to use up to $3 billion in federal and state money over five years for training and loan repayments of health care workers who care for Medicaid patients in underserved areas. ( PLURIBUS NEWS ) ...