AHIP Trying To Exploit Loophole In New Health Bill!

[ProSense]

Thankfully the Obama administration is stepping in to correct this loophole. Here's more on this story below:

<...>

Late Tuesday, the administration said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would try to resolve the situation by issuing new regulations. The Obama administration interprets the law to mean that kids can't be denied coverage, as the president has said repeatedly.

"To ensure that there is no ambiguity on this point, the secretary of HHS is preparing to issue regulations next month making it clear that the term 'pre-existing exclusion' applies to both a child's access to a plan and his or her benefits once he or she is in the plan for all plans newly sold in this country six months from today," HHS spokesman Nick Papas said.

more

On edit: This is simply the insurance companies trying to exploit ambiguity in the language. The will fail.

[LiberalFighter]

1. Insurance companies need to be called out on this publicly.

[denimgirly]

12. And therein lies the problem - MSM, Repubs, and most Dems desparately would want to keep it quiet

1. MSM cant cuz it might affect advertising $, or because they might be indirectly owned, or owning in the sector.
2. Republicans cuz 100% are owned by the sector
3. Most democrats are owned by the sector.

So that leaves a few democrats who arent corrupt...but then most of those have never had a spine and just go with the flow..so that just leave maybe 2 people left who will fight, and eager to take it on...but will the MSM allow them to present it.

[sharp_stick]

2. You've got to wonder

how many lawyers the health insurance companies have going just to look for little loopholes that will allow them to continue pulling this kind of shit?

[HughMoran]

3. Funny Prosense, somebody unrecs your threads within seconds of you posting

Funny in a way that someone would be so small-minded.

[Cha]

7. Bitter

small grapes.

[HughMoran]

8. tiny bitter shriveled up small grapes

I could care less if somebody unrecs on content, but many of the threads could only possibly be objectionable to a right-winger or a small minded ass hole! :think:

[dionysus]

10. that's because it kils today's "they lied about children's coverage" meme they're busy with...

[ejpoeta]

4. what a surprise! insurance companies exploiting loopholes...

who could have foreseen that a company that has made their fortune exploiting loopholes and creating loopholes would do such a thing.

[no limit]

5. They let the loop hole in there and now they promoise to fix it? That makes me feel so much better

Does HHS even have the authority to regulate this? Or can they only issue recommendations?

[dionysus]

11. would you rather they do nothing?

[no limit]

13. No, I'm just sick of reading about them constantly fucking us over

and it isn't until these things are pointed out that they get fixed.

[dionysus]

14. you really going to frame it as they did that on purpose.. to fuck over kids. really? come on.

[no limit]

15. I don't know what else to think. This president was a constitutional lawyer

There are hundreds more lawyers on the democratic side involved in writing this bill. How hard can it be to write something that says "You cant ever deny a child health insurance for any reason"? Why even leave the possibility of having a loop hole?

[dionysus]

16. so now obama has to personally proofread every line of the bill?

if you really think the dems are evil like that, why are you here?
:rofl:

[no limit]

17. I never said such a thing. My point is he's not an idiot

neither are the hundreds of lawyers that worked on this bill. Yet something like this gets slipped in. I dont see how it could be an accident.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

20. Something always gets slipped in....

And the DHHS is going to use its regulatory powers to plug them as them appear.

Chill, dude. The system is working.

[no limit]

23. Slipped in by who? If something is always going to get slipped in then no, the system is not working

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

24. No. This is precisely how the system works....

With a thousand or more pages of text in just about any major legislation that gets passed, there's always a way to insert just enough weasel words to create a loophole.

Secretary Sibelius has broad authority to implement and interpret the language in the reform bill. In future legislation, Congress can officially close those loopholes to prevent future administrations from backsliding.

If you're waiting for Congress to pass perfectly-crafted legislation, I'm afraid you're in for a long, long wait.

[no limit]

26. But how can you say that the system works when that happens? That's insane

The medicare buy-in is 4 pages long. Put that aside I'm not a lawyer but how fucking hard is it to write "You can't deny children health insurance for any reason ever". Look, I did it in one sentance.

So if someone is out there writing legislation meant to have loop holes in it (legislation doesn't write itself) then no, the system does not work. The system is fucked up. I would like to read up more on what kind of authority HHS actually has here but that really is a side point.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

28. You're right. You're not a lawyer.

No Reason? Ever? What about in cases of divorce where the child is already covered under a parent's existing plan, but it's a non-custodial parent who is a U.S. citizen but the child in question is living in Mexico City with the custodial parent who isn't a U.S. citizen?

Fog Lifting a Little? Writing legislation is a lot more complicated than you think.

[no limit]

30. Is the child a US citizen or legal resident? Then no, you shouldn't be able to deny them coverage

no matter what their custodial parents citizen status is. Obviously the insurance would only apply when seeking treatment in the US as your policy already spells out.

So what is your point?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

32. My point is...

it just took you two more sentences to clarify what you were saying the first time, and I could probably churn about at least a half-dozen confounding factors that would cause you to have to explain your clarification. And that was just one example that I pulled off the top of my head.

My point is that writing legislation is extremely difficult, and so it is entirely possible for language to be inserted that creates a loophole unbeknownst to the people who are voting on it.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

25. Dude, go smoke some pot or something, will ya?

For fuck's sake, these things happen all the time. Re-fucking-lax.

[no limit]

27. I think you're smoking too much pot if you are willing to accept this and act as if its normal

someone decided to write this in a way that would leave this loop hole in there. These bills don't write themselves, they are written by very smart lawyers that know what they are doing. So someone made the decision to word it that way. And you will sit here and tell me that this is normal and I should just get over it? Some of you people really disappoint me, you wouldn't have had this attititude 4 years ago with Bush in office and republicans in controll of congress; now suddenly these things are okay.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

31. It's a 2000+ page bill.

These things happen, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with intelligence. Have you ever written anything longer than 10 pages?

[Cha]

6. As if we needed more proof that insurance co didn't

want this HCR to pass.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. Hopefully, the days of them being so brazen and cocky are over

I'm glad that they were stupid enough to telegraph this move. Kudos to Obama and Sebelius for jumping right on this. :thumbsup:

[Jennicut]

18. The insurance industry will attempt to exploit anything they can get their hands on. It will be a

constant fight. We should be prepared over the next few years for this type of thing. The HHS secretary has a lot of experience being a former insurance commissioner.

[flyarm]

19. Gap in health care law's protection for children.(.what a loophole!!!)

read the full story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100324/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_overhaul_children_s_coverage

Gap in health care law's protection for children


AP
WASHINGTON – Hours after President Barack Obama signed historic health care legislation, a potential problem emerged. Administration officials are now scrambling to fix a gap in highly touted benefits for children.

Obama made better coverage for children a centerpiece of his health care remake, but it turns out the letter of the law provided a less-than-complete guarantee that kids with health problems would not be shut out of coverage.

Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday.

snip:

Obama's public statements have conveyed the impression that the new protections for kids were more sweeping and straightforward.

"This is a patient's bill of rights on steroids," the president said Friday at George Mason University in Virginia. "Starting this year, thousands of uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions will be able to purchase health insurance, some for the very first time. Starting this year, insurance companies will be banned forever from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions."

[slipslidingaway]

21. Big loophole! ....

"Here's the start of the coming stories about private insurers finding and exploiting loopholes in the Senate health bill. One such loophole is the issue of insurance coverage for children with pre-existing conditions.Here's how this loophole in the bill works:

Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill President Barack Obama signed into law Tuesday.

What that means is that the ban on pre-existing conditions for children apply to existing health insurance plans, and not to new insurance coverage plans. So a private insurer can simply write a new insurance plan that doesn't cover a child's pre-existing condition..."


Fortunately Sebelius will TRY to resolve this issue.


For profit companies will try and exploit any loopholes, their responsibility is to return profits to investors, not be nice guys.

They better have still penalties for breaking any of the regulations, otherwise it will be cheaper to pay for violations and not extend payment for HC.

[jeanpalmer]

22. How clever

Give the kid insurance, but then don't cover the condition. The insurance companies work 24-7 to screw over people. "Deny" is the only word in their dictionary. We have more luck regulating drug dealers and prostitutes and Wall St.

[Bullet1987]

29. Insurance companies aren't going to stop

They'll find ways around this HCR bill. Which is why the bill needed to go further.