SB 247

Under current law, an insurer is not required to renew short-term health

coverage, which is coverage that is marketed and designed to provide short-term

coverage as a bridge between health coverage with an initial term of not more than

12 months and an aggregate term of all consecutive periods of coverage not exceeding

18 months. The federal regulation defining this short-term, limited-duration

insurance, effective on August 3, 2018, has the same initial term but specifies an

aggregate duration, including renewals or extensions, of no longer than 36 months.

This federal regulation allows states to set a shorter maximum aggregate duration,

as Wisconsin law had done before the regulation was effective.

This bill replicates the definition of short-term, limited-duration coverage in

the 2018 federal regulation. Specifically, the bill extends the cumulative duration

to no longer than 36 months, including all renewals and extensions. Under the bill,

the initial expiration date specified in the contract for short-term, limited-duration

coverage must be less than 12 months after the contract's effective date, which

retains Wisconsin's requirement for the initial contract term. Current state law

allows the commissioner of insurance to promulgate rules relating to the sale of these

short-term, limited duration health plans, and the bill retains this authorization

except for rules that set a different initial or aggregate duration of short-term,

limited-duration coverage.