Senator Jay Rockefeller and Congressman Joe Courtney held a conference call today to announce the introduction of the Pre-existing Condition Patient Protection Act. The bill's title is largely its content. It restricts insurers from refusing to cover pre-existing conditions. This is, sadly, a common trap in the insurance market. Low-cost plans often lay down some fine print exempting the insurance plan from covering conditions that existed before the policy was purchased. Chronic back pain, say. Or melanoma if you've previously had malignancies. It's brutal stuff. What the bill doesn't do is block insurers from denying you coverage outright. In that, it's a bit of an odd regulatory beast. The policies available to those with chronic conditions will either become much more expensive because the insurer has to expect to cover the recurrences or much less available as the insurer will simply deny coverage outright (which they are still allowed to do). As far as I can tell, the bill has the potential to make coverage both less accessible -- it will be more frequently denied -- and less affordable. And the authors know that Rockefeller's press release says that the bill means to make "coverage more accessible for individuals with chronic conditions, but also recognize[s] that without further regulatory changes, coverage may not be affordable for these individuals." As a method of dramatizing some of the worst practices of insurers, it makes sound political sense. But it's not a fix.
