The 2012 Presidential Election is coming up in just a few weeks. It is vital that everyone become an informed voter and understand exactly where each candidate stands on major issues. Since this is the Insurance Blog, I am focusing on issues and topics that relate to health insurance coverage. Here is where the candidates stand on pre-existing conditions.
A pre-existing condition is a health condition, disease, or situation that a person has experienced in the past, or is continuing to experience today. An insurance company could consider anything at all to be a pre-existing condition: cancer, allergies, asthma, diabetes, obesity, a surgery for any injury at all, or even a cesarean section.
In the past, insurers used these (and many other types of) pre-existing conditions to refuse to cover someone, to charge that person more for premiums, or to drop that person’s health insurance coverage. Many insurers would refuse to cover children who had a pre-existing condition.
On the Romney website it says very little about pre-existing conditions. Here is what it does say:
“Prevent discrimination against individuals with pre-existing conditions who maintain continuous coverage”
This means that Romney/Ryan want to make sure that people who currently have health insurance coverage, and who have had health insurance coverage for many years, will not be discriminated against by health insurers due to the person’s pre-existing conditions. At first glance, it sounds as though Romney/Ryan want to make sure that everyone is protected from being refused coverage due to a pre-existing condition.
The key part of this is the “who maintain continuous coverage” part. Individuals or families who lost their jobs, and their health insurance coverage along with it, during the recession have not had “continuous coverage”. If your family has had continuous health insurance coverage for several years, without interruption, then the Romney/Ryan plan will protect your family from discrimination by insurers due to pre-existing conditions.
The Obama/Biden plan is called “Obamacare”, or the Affordable Care Act. In July of 2010, the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan took effect. It covers all United States Citizens, (or those who reside in the United States legally) who have been denied health insurance coverage because of a pre-existing condition. The person must also have been uninsured or at least six months.
In September of 2010, another part of the Affordable Care Act took effect. It prohibited insurance companies from rescinding coverage for people due to an error or other technical mistake. Previous to this law, insurers would use this “loophole” to drop coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.
Also in September of 2010, an ACA portion went into affect that prohibited health insurers from denying coverage for children based on pre-existing conditions. On the Barack Obama website, it states “Starting in 2014, insurance companies won’t be able to charge more or deny coverage based on a pre-existing condition.”
Image by DonkeyHotey on Flickr