Even more Hopey Changey stuff: "Health insurers agree to end controversial drop-off practice."

[Clio the Leo]

Health insurers agree to end controversial drop-off practice
By Julian Pecquet - 04/28/10 08:30 PM ET

Four months before the enactment of a mandate set by the new healthcare law, the nation’s largest health insurers have agreed to stop canceling sick people’s coverage.

Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), was expected to send a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius by the end of Wednesday making the announcement official, an insurance industry source told The Hill.

The industry had come under pressure from the White House and congressional Democrats, who jumped on press reports that some companies were dumping women with breast cancer from coverage. Three House committee chairmen wrote the CEOs of several major insurers on Tuesday asking that they end the practice.
The healthcare law mandates that insurance companies end the practice of rescissions, except in clear-cut cases of fraud and intentional misrepresentation, as of Sept. 23. Ignagni will announce that companies have voluntarily agreed to end rescissions by the end of May, the industry source said.

The move by insurers is intended to show they are committed to working with the new healthcare law even after the White House cast the industry as a villain during the healthcare debate.

“We want to send a strong signal that we’re committed to making this work,” the industry source said.

It represents concession by the industry since the bill became law. Several health plans agreed earlier this month to immediately allow children to stay on their parents’ plan until the age 26, though the new law only mandates them to do so starting Sept. 23.

Insurers last month, likewise under pressure from the White House, agreed to cover children with pre-existing conditions starting this year. The industry initially argued that the new law does not require them to do so until 2014.

The expected announcement represents a political victory for Democrats eager to showcase the immediate benefits of their signature health reform law before the midterm elections.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/95027-insurers-agree-to-end-controversial-drop-off-practice