This bill adds a new section to chapter 48.43 RCW that requires health carriers to allow enrollees earlier access to covered services that are otherwise limited to annual or other multiyear frequencies. For health, dental-only, and vision-only plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026, a carrier that requires an annual covered service to occur at least 12 months after the prior service must permit the enrollee to obtain the service at least one month before the 12-month interval elapses. For services covered on a biennial or other multiyear frequency, carriers must permit the enrollee to obtain the service at least one month before the applicable multiyear interval elapses. In both situations the carrier must apply the same cost-sharing that would have applied if the service had occurred after the full interval. The bill creates a new statutory requirement (a new section in chapter 48.43 RCW) and also reenacts and amends RCW 41.05.017 to make specified health plans under RCW 41.05—including plans created by insuring entities, plans not subject to Title 48 RCW, and plans created under RCW 41.05.140—subject to a listed set of RCW provisions and to expressly include the new section from this act among those provisions. The parties directly affected are health carriers and enrollees of the covered plans. The text provided does not include formal definitions for key terms used (for example, “health carrier,” “covered service,” or “cost-sharing”), and it does not show the contents of the many RCW cross-references or the prior context for the reenacted RCW 41.05.017 provisions, so those details are uncertain from the extracted text.

If enacted, starting January 1, 2026 people covered by health, dental‑only, or vision‑only plans will be allowed to obtain services that are normally limited to yearly or multiyear intervals up to one month earlier than the interval would otherwise permit, and they will pay the same cost‑sharing they would have paid had they waited the full interval. That gives enrollees more flexibility to schedule care without higher out‑of‑pocket charges, and it explicitly extends the rule to health plans governed by RCW 41.05 as listed in the bill. The parties most affected are health carriers and the administrators of plans under RCW 41.05, who must change benefit administration and scheduling/authorization practices to allow the earlier access and track that the same cost‑sharing applies. Carriers could see modest near‑term shifts in utilization and additional processing work; the bill does not specify how “covered service,” “health carrier,” or “cost‑sharing” are defined nor the detailed effects of the many cross‑referenced RCW provisions, so some operational and scope details remain unclear from the provided text.