The insurance companies are already trying to evade key provisions of the health insurance reform law passed last week by claiming, why no, it doesn't say they have to give coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.
More details from the interviews with the heads of the insurance companies in the Times.
They can't cut a child from a policy, they say, but they reserve the right to increase premiums. And they don't have to give a policy to a new child.
Once again, I'm lucky. My insurance company didn't deny coverage to The Offspring when he was born with a collapsed lung. In fact, I have no idea how much it cost for the two days he spent in Intensive Care. (Lucky, again, that it was only two days.) They didn't cut him from my insurance policy when he turned out, two years later, to have asthma. (They have been raising premiums, though.)
But health coverage should not be -- can not be -- about luck. It needs to be about policy, fairness, social responsibility to all members of a community, and not just those with good jobs or good unions or good inheritances.
Oh, and that bill from that doctor who was out of network, the one who cured "the itis" but charged $425 for a consultation? I got back $48.48 from the insurance company.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Two months in the NICU 15 years ago cost over 800K. I nearly fell over when I saw that bill. In the end, the insurance company paid far less and I wasn't out of pocket at all - but that was THEN and now...well, I don't want to think about how it would play out especially with our new policy.
ReplyDeleteAs with the credit card companies, I expect the insurance companies to play with the rules in order to get as much as they can for as long as they can. They have a responsibility to share holders to maximize profit, after all.
I think this is the whole problem with the law. Insurers can't deny coverage (starting in 2014), but they can charge whatever they want for that coverage, and guess what? Now we're required by law to pay their prices.
ReplyDeleteI can see so many problems with this law. It makes me very, very nervous.
(Hi. I'm Jennifer. I followed a link here from the Just Posts : )