Posted on 12/14/2013 5:38:43 AM PST by reaganaut1
A coalition of 31 HIV/AIDS organizations is urging the Obama administration to investigate whether some health insurers are trying to discourage HIV-infected patients from enrolling in new policies being sold under the health-care law, a move the groups say could be illegal.
The Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination against people who are sick; insurers can't deny them coverage or charge them more than healthier peers.
But in a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius last week, the coalition said it had noticed "a number of disturbing trends" in plans on the insurance exchanges, including plans that don't cover all available HIV drugs and what it termed "egregious cost-sharing designs."
What constitutes discrimination under the health law isn't clear, legal experts say, because the administration has yet to issue guidance.
Experts including the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute are studying the issue. "You are not supposed to design policies that discriminate, but what does it mean for a plan to be discriminatory? We don't know that yet," said Kevin Lucia, a research professor at the institute.
Among examples the HIV/AIDS coalition cited:
Aetna Inc. requires patients to pay 50% of the cost, after a drug deductible, for most HIV drugs in Florida. In Florida and some other states, Cigna Corp. and Aetna's separate CoventryOne put all HIV drugs—including generics—in a special category, requiring patients to pay 40% to 50% of their cost. That can be thousands of dollars a month.
Humana Inc. 's posted list of covered drugs in Florida and Alabama lists only six HIV drugs; other drugs are on a separate specialty list that shoppers might not know to check, the group says. All require patients to pay 50% of the cost, after a separate drug deductible.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Also, you demonstrated your lack of knowledge of the subject with your last reply.
You could look it up.
What the hell does that have to do with premium?
get rid of the whole ball of wax. Then cut waste and red tape and allow companies to operate as they please.if the government would back off the numbers of uninsured would dwindle. Obamacare does the opposite.
No doubt Obamacare is a “full employment” bill for attorneys.
I wonder what the final tally for the new Obamacare supporting IRS employees is?
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