The Badger Herald: News: Lawmakers OK bill to ease health care application

News

Lawmakers OK bill to ease health care application

Plan would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to sickly citizens

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Also by Rachel Vesco:

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By Rachel Vesco
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 12:00 a.m.

4 Vote 0 Votes

A bill passed by the Assembly Tuesday would change the way insurance companies cover pre-existing health conditions for their policyholders.

The bill would require insurance companies to ask clients no more than 10 pages of uniform questions when they are applying for coverage and would prevent insurance companies from denying insurance to policyholders who have been diagnosed or treated for a pre-existing condition within 12 months before the effective date of coverage.

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan, D-Janesville, praised the passage of the bill.

“All too often, insurance companies use unfair or extreme pre-existing condition clauses to refuse coverage, forcing patients, families — or state taxpayers — to pay huge medical bill to get necessary care,” Sheridan said in a statement. “Legislation passed today … grants Wisconsinites access to the health care they need — and the coverage they expect from their insurance providers.”

Sheridan added he believes the bill will help Wisconsin families save money, a necessary provision given the state’s current economic conditions.

Rep. Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, said he disagrees with Sheridan. The additional regulations on health insurance included in the bill will likely cause small businesses to stop offering health care to their employees, Huebsch added.

“Essentially what we’re going to do… is we’re going to continue to drive up the costs of health care for small businesses and prevent small business from offering health care,” Huebsch said.

The Assembly passed the bill by a margin of 61 to 38, with Republicans largely voting against the measure.

This is the third health care reform bill passed by the Assembly over the last week.

Last week, legislators passed a bill aimed at ensuring children with hearing loss have access to cochlear implants while easing the costs of the implants on both families and taxpayers.

Lawmakers also passed a bill creating a “no fee” temporary permit for dental providers that meet state licensing requirements and want to volunteer their time to provide dental care to those who need it.

4 Comments | Leave a comment

Anonymous | April 29, 2009 10:30 AM | Reply

What’s next? Forcing auto insurance companies to insure cars AFTER the accident? Forcing life insurance companies to issue policies to dead people?

Forcing insurance companies to pay for pre-existing conditions is insane on the face of it. Insurance should be a way spread risk. This is like forcing a casino to allow bets on the wheel after the ball has dropped in a slot.

Sick people everywhere who are facing a “huge medical bill to get necessary care” will come to Wisconsin to take advantage of this insanity.

Anonymous | April 29, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply

Insurance companies use the term “adverse selection” to describe the tendency for only those who will benefit from insurance to buy it. Specifically when talking about health insurance, unhealthy people are more likely to purchase health insurance because they anticipate large medical bills. Because of adverse selection, insurance companies employ medical underwriting, using a patient’s medical history to screen out those whose pre-existing medical conditions pose too great a risk for the risk pool.

Limiting the ability of insurance companies to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions will result in higher bills for everyone. Of course it will be a great boon for those who wait until they need expensive medical care to shop for insurance, at least in the time before health companies stop doing business in Wisconsin.

Anonymous | April 30, 2009 4:15 AM | Reply

This is totally ridiculous in my eyes. If you are looking for insurance then i suggest you try a very helpful broker i have used many times. Go to http://www.rainbowgrp.co.uk/Insurance/LifeInsuranceMain.aspx

Anonymous | April 30, 2009 9:04 PM | Reply

But I’d bet that the helpful broker won’t insure you for cancer expenses if you already have cancer. That’s the “problem” that the politicians want to solve.