RED ALERT: Children Could Still Be Refused Coverage Because of Pre-Existing Conditions

Obamacare Turns Out Not to Be Quite as Advertised

“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.”

“In recent speeches, Obama has given the impression that the immediate benefit for kids is much more robust.

“Full protection for children would not come until 2014, said Kate Cyrul, a spokeswoman for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, another panel that authored the legislation. That’s the same year when insurance companies could no longer deny coverage to any person on account of health problems.

“Obama’s public statements conveyed the impression that the new protections for kids were 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.’”

(Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, “Gap in Health Care Law’s Protection for Children,” Associated Press, 3/23/10)

By Code Red