Legal Commentary

Will Pre-Existing Conditions Only Cover Kids?

By Jeralyn

Politico says John Aravosis of AmericaBlog makes a good catch on David Plouffe's op-ed in the Washington Post: Obama may be preparing to drop the ban on denying coverage for pre-existing conditions for all but children in the health care bill. Plouffe wrote:

Parents won't have to worry their children will be denied coverage just because they have a preexisting condition.

Aravosis says,

Their children? The original promise - even the bad Senate bill - protects everyone, of any age, from being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Now it's just children?

Aravosis says it's unlikely Plouffe was just using kids as an example. But, could Plouffe have been talking about when the ban kicks in? His full paragraph reads:

If we do pass it, dozens of protections and benefits take effect this year. Parents won't have to worry their children will be denied coverage just because they have a preexisting condition. [More...]

As support for the belief it will be dropped completely for adults, Aravosis cites these articles in the New York Times and at CBS. CBS:

Earlier this week, Obama had suggested shifting the focus to popular proposals like banning denial of coverage to those with medical problems. On Friday, he acknowledged that particular fix can't be done on its own because it would encourage people to put off getting insurance until they're sick, driving up premiums for everybody else. A comprehensive bill remains the best approach, the president suggested.

"None of the big issues that we face in this country are simple. Everybody wants to act like they're simple," he told workers in Ohio. "The health care system is a big, complicated system, and doing it right is hard." Banning pre-existing condition denials would have to go hand-in-hand with coverage for all.

The Times, on what a compromise bill might look like:

Lawmakers, Congressional aides and health policy experts said the package might plausibly include these elements: Insurers could not deny coverage to children under the age of 19 on account of pre-existing medical conditions....

It would be a huge mistake to cut adults from protection against denial for pre-existing conditons. And quite a change from where Obama began. See here, where it is number one on the agenda. I suspect a great deal of support for the bill came from those with pre-existing conditions. If they jump ship, who's left to support this bill -- besides parents of children with pre-existing conditions?

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 24, 2010 (boomark / email).