Wasn't the Kennedy-Kassebaum Act supposed to stop pre-existing condition denials?

[bluestateguy]

Correct me if I am wrong here. I remember this law was passed in 1996 with almost no opposition. I seem to remember that it was supposed to stop pre-existing condition denials. Am I wrong, or was the law full of swiss cheese loopholes?

[activa8tr]

1. Obviously it didn't cover people who

actually HAD pre-existing conditions.

Otherwise Obama wouldn't have wasted 14 months dancing with Republicans

JMO

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Not that I can see...

http://privacy.med.miami.edu/glossary/xd_hipaa.htm

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)

HIPAA is the federal law that establishes standards for the privacy and security of health information, as well as standards for electronic data interchange (EDI) of health information.

HIPAA has two main goals, as its name implies:

making health insurance more portable when persons change employers, and
making the health care system more accountable for costs -- trying especially to reduce waste and fraud.

http://www.online-health-insurance.com/health-insurance-resources/KHC/content/the-kennedy-kassebaum-act.htm

HIPAA is designed to ease "job lock," which is the reluctance that many people feel to changing jobs for fear of losing their family's high-quality health coverage. The law limits the extent to which some group health plans can exclude coverage for preexisting conditions. For instance, if your family has had creditable health insurance for 12 straight months, with no lapse in coverage of 63 days or more, a new group health plan cannot invoke the pre-existing condition exclusion. It must cover your medical problems as soon as you enroll in the plan.

[cornermouse]

5. Looks a lot like HCR to me.

http://www.diabetesmonitor.com/other/health-care-reform.htm

U.s. Senate Bill 1028
Publication Date: 8/21/206

August 21, 1996 Update:

President William Jefferson Clinton today signed Senate Bill 1028, the Kassebaum-Kennedy Health Care Reform Act, into law.

The bill had finally passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, 421-2, and the Senate, 98-0, after months of wrangling about Medical Savings Accounts (which the Republicans wanted to add, and did).



Key provisions include:

* Most people who change jobs will be able to get insurance right away, even for a preexisting medical problem.
* Insurance companies won't be able to cancel coverage for people who get sick but keep paying their premiums.
* Medical Savings Accounts, which allow workers to save tax-free money for medical expenses, will be piloted.
* Health insurance for self-employed individuals will be 80% tax-deductible by the year 2006.

More information, plus the full text of the bill, can be downloaded, at http://rs9.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d104:s.1028: Also see The Kassebaum-Kennedy Health Care Reform Act of 1995 (S.1028) at children with DIABETES, which includes hyperlinks to mailing addresses for Congresspeople.

[Ozymanithrax]

10. It was far more limited...mostly protecting people who already had...

work provided health insurance.

[cornermouse]

11. I am politely disagreeing with you.

[Ozymanithrax]

12. And I respect you for it.

[cornermouse]

3. The insurance company "fixed" it.

You might want to think about that at least a little.

[PA Democrat]

4. It applies only to group plans and only if you

have no break in coverage (I think there is a small amount of leeway there.)

For people who have to buy their own insurance there is no such protection.

[midnight]

6. K&R for more discussion on this act.

[cornermouse]

7. The "We Can Do Health Reform Without Taking on the Insurance Industry" Argument

http://www.openleft.com/tag/Kennedy-Kassebaum

...What I fear instead is another bill like Kennedy-Kassebaum which, as I have written before, was supposed to solve some of the same insurance problems like people losing their insurance when they switched jobs, or being deprived of pre-existing conditions- all of which continues to happen.

Another bad outcome would be that we get something like the Massachusetts health plan, which passed with a lot of hype a few years ago. It's not working very well, though, as way too many people can't afford to sign up for coverage, and the costs are quickly spiraling out of control.

These two pieces of legislation are failing because of the same problem: neither one took on the power of the insurance industry. These two bills, both passed with great fanfare in the thoroughly bipartisan fashion, are not working because they provide no check on insurance industry power, no competition and no reason for insurers to control their costs- which, by the way, is exactly why they passed so easily with such big bipartisan support...

[Warpy]

8. It did on group plans through corporate jobs

Unfortunately, insurance companies found other ways to rescind policies and withhold treatment. In addition, they imposed punitive rate hikes on companies that insured workers with health problems.

[howaboutme]

9. Eliminate insurance companies and chop 30% off the top

1- Our health care has 30% added to it not to improve it, but to provide insurance companies with profits and big CEO bonuses.

2- It is illegal for government to negotiate on drug prices or for citizens to re-import drugs and compete internationally with drug companies that charge USA citizens 3-10x what they charge other countries.

3- Our drug companies are allowed to spend more on direct advertising of drugs to end users (and physicians) that they spend on R&D.

These are big factors that lead to the USA having the highest cost of health care in the world. I don't see this new health medical bill addressing any of these three factors but I guess it is a start.