Bill Description: House Bill 648 would impose new regulations on health carriers and limit their flexibility on drug pricing. 

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NOTE: House Bill 648 is related to House Bill 530 (2026) and Senate Bill 1034 (2019). 

Does it give government any new, additional, or expanded power to prohibit, restrict, or regulate activities in the free market? Conversely, does it eliminate or reduce government intervention in the market?

House Bill 648 would create Section 41-1854, Idaho Code, to require that any health benefit plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2027, that cover FDA-approved anticancer medications must “ensure that coverage for prescribed orally administered anticancer medication is subject to the same plan design cost sharing with respect to copayment, coinsurance, and deductible of an injected or intravenously administered anticancer medication.”

This mandate restricts the free market and freedom of contract by overriding and prohibiting certain policy agreements between providers of health benefit plans and their policyholders. 

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