Posted on 01/18/2011 12:20:02 PM PST by tobyhill
House Republicans and members of the health insurance industry are dismissing as a gross overstatement an Obama administration study -- released as debate gets underway to repeal the health care law -- that says as many as half of all Americans under 65 have a pre-existing condition that could threaten their access to health insurance.
The Department of Health and Human Services study, released Tuesday, concludes that somewhere between 50 million and 129 million non-elderly Americans have a pre-existing condition -- the kind of condition insurance companies can use to deny coverage. The study further found that 15-30 percent of people in good health are likely to develop such a condition within eight years.
"We as a nation can't afford to repeal the health care law," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on a conference call Tuesday.
But an America's Health Insurance Plans spokesman said the HHS study creates a disconnect between conditions and coverage.
"It's exaggerating the number of people who are actually impacted by pre-existing conditions,"said AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach. "Most people who are applying are getting policies."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
American Thinker: A Look at Preexisting Conditions
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/a_look_at_preexisting_conditio.html
Often it’s not the patient’s fault that he has a preexisting condition (although one could argue this in cases of AIDS or lung cancer or cardiovascular disease secondary to smoking). At the same time, it’s not everyone else’s fault, either. Mandating same-cost coverage for preexisting conditions is not insurance. It is, in fact, public welfare, and it could be managed more effectively, efficiently, and affordably independent of the insurance industry that serves most of the population. For example, take any medium-sized corporation that provides health insurance benefits for its employees and their families. This is its “insurance pool.” The insurer evaluates the demographics and calculates the risk, and the corporation arrives at a premium for coverage. Corporations are very good at this. The insurers can usually calculate an appropriate premium to cover all the claims and still make a profit.
...and already covered under “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996” (HIPAA)
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_hipaa.html
Perhaps since the average health insurance consumer only gets their information through their employers (Thanks for the misery, Ted Kennedy), they simply don't know better.
So...
When is someone from the regime going to bring the hammer down on these insurers for exposing this “inconvenient truth”?
The federal government vs the health insurance industry is like Al Qaeda vs Iran to me
I hate both sides pretty strongly and no matter who wins, we all lose
..and already covered under “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996” (HIPAA)
Exactly. zero and his cronies are conflating 0bamacare with HIPAA to confuse the public. This is downright sinister. Haul her a**, along with that creep Berwick,up to the Hill and grill them! (oh sorry for the rhetoric- NOT!)
Hmmmmmm seems there IS preexisting condition of Leftist Indoctrination amongst that younger age group.
I don’t know about other states but in Texas if you have a pre-existing condition but have been covered, you will be convered if you change jobs. In fact, my treatment at a VA was considered “insurance”.
This is such BS. I can’t believe what baldfaced liars these jerks are. They will do anything, and say anything to advance their BS agenda. As a doc, if what they say were true I would have essentially no insured patients.
The good news is that if they weren’t worried about the Republicans being successful taking away their socialist crown jewel they wouldn’t be spouting BS like this.
Back in 1992 my wife was pregnant and I switched jobs. Everyone was warning me about pre-existing conditions and losing insurance coverage since I was changing companies and coverage.
I talked to the HR people at my new company prior to taking the position and they said no-problem, your wife is covered. If you already have coverage there’s no problem. If I didn’t have insurance coverage from my previous employer or on my own then it was an issue.
This is another load of manure from the administration trying to frighten us. If we don’t have a crisis we’ll create one.
Has Planned Parenthood come out in support of insurance companies declaring BEING BORN as a pre-existing condition?
There are a lot of numbers between 50 million and 129 million. That’s quite a ‘range’ for a US population of 330 mill...somewhere between 15% and over 50%?
Someone pulled that out of their nether regions.
Sebelius needs to go. This is soooo Dem--playing the calamity card just as a vote is about to be taken.<,p>vaudine
Planned Parenthood has not openly come out in support of declaring BEING BORN BLACK as a pre-existing condition, but they are more than happy to provide a "treatment" for this condition.
I have hypertension, BC/BS knew about it when they accepted me.
As long as I stay on my meds and those checkups show a consistent 120/80 or below, I’m less of a risk of blowing a gasket than someone with unknown high BP.
” ‘discriminate’ against those with pre-existing conditions...”you hear the Rush montage today?
Dims use “discriminate” like it’s an evil word.
We “discriminate” every time we shop for one soup brand over another .I like Progresso, but I loathe progressives.
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