An Update from State House Representative Bonnie Rich

Legislation Summary:

This week the House House Bill 62, or “Margie’s Law,” one of the first bills I co-sponsored. I was honored to “take the Well” for the first time in my legislative career to speak to this important bill. This bipartisan measure passed by a vote of 166-1 and would require mammography examiners to notify patients when dense breast tissue is found. The bill also encourages women to speak with their health care provider about whether other supplemental tests in addition to a mammogram may be appropriate, based on their individual risk. Dense breast tissue can make it more difficult to detect cancer through a mammogram and can increase the risk for breast cancer. If signed into law, Georgia will join 30 other states that have passed similar legislation to allow women to become active participants in this area of their health and help save lives from breast cancer.

The House took up another very important measure this week to clarify existing law regarding when drivers cannot pass stopped school buses. SB 25 protects our school bus riders by making it clear that drivers can pass a stopped school bus on the other side of the road only when the roadways are divided by a grass median, unpaved area or physical barrier. Governor Kemp recognized that swift action was needed to resolve this issue and signed SB 25 into law on February 15, and the bill went into immediate effect.

This week my colleagues and I passed House Bill 63, a patient centered bill that allows health care providers to provide proper medication to patients. Insurance companies in Georgia often use step therapy, which is a process that requires a patient to try and fail one or more medications preferred by their insurer before receiving coverage for the medication that their doctor prescribed. This bill would allow physicians to submit a step therapy exemption or appeal if the insurance preferred prescription drug will cause an adverse reaction, is expected to be ineffective, the patient has tried the required prescription drug or the patient's condition is stable on a prescription drug previously selected by his or her practitioner. HB 63 also ensures that patients would not have to begin a step therapy process for an in-use medication after switching insurance providers. This bipartisan legislation addresses an insurance protocol that almost cost the life of my sister several years ago. This health care bill passed the House last year as well, but was killed in the Senate. We are very hopeful that it will pass this year, empowering physicans more influence in the care of Georgia patients.

We passed House Bill 25 this week to provide financial relief for active duty members of the U.S. military, Georgia National Guard and Georgia Air National Guard. This bipartisan legislation would allow military service members who receive orders of deployment to a location that does not support the contracted-for services like television, internet or gym services to cancel their contracts. Inspired by similar legislation implemented in 18 other states, the House has worked alongside federal officials to craft legislation that would alleviate some of the financial burdens for those who protect our great state and country.

The House unanimously passed a bill which will allow electric membership corporations (EMCs) to provide broadband service while prohibiting them from disconnecting broadband service if a customer fails to pay their power bills or vice versa. Broadband is essential to almost every factor of economic development, and this legislation is a tremendous step in the right direction to help spur economic development in rural Georgia.

The House also passed, nearly unanimously, a bill that would provide a pathway for deployment of small cell and 5G technology in public rights-of-way in Georgia. This bill represents a negotiated agreement between our city governments, the technology companies and interested advocates. It will support the consumer-driven demand for high-speed wireless access while preserving the ability of our local governments to protect historic districts and community aesthetics. The city leadership from Suwanee, Sugar Hill and Duluth are pleased with this bill.

The House will return to Capitol Hill for Legislative Day 17 on Tuesday, February 19, where we will convene for a joint session to hear the State of the Judiciary address. Please contact my office with questions or concerns. My Capitol office number is 404-656-0254 and my email address is bonnie.rich@house.ga.gov.

As always, thank you for allowing me to serve as your state representative.