Can Kids with Preexisting Conditions Be Excluded?

After a year of wrangling over the Health Care Reform Bill, there are claims that the bill may not cover kids with preexisting conditions until 2014. That is not so. The Weekly Standard has championed this idea with an article titled Oops: Health Care Bill Does not Cover Kids Preexisting Conditions.(1) The language of the Bill was written by the Senate but the focus of the article is to blame President Obama . There seems to be some ambiguity in the way the bill is worded and insurance companies may be trying to use it as a loophole. One might wonder why this is just now being brought up. But, there is more to the story.

The Weekly Standard took its information from an AP news article. It is an example of cherrypicking as the Weekly Standard didn’t tell the whole story. The AP news article also goes on to quote HHS spokesman Nick Papas who said: “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,” (2)

In spite of all the hullabaloo created by the Weekly Standard, the Christian Science Monitor says denial of insurance to kids with preexisting conditions will end this year. They say ” Six months from the day the bill was signed (let’s see … that’ll be Sept. 23, by our calculation), insurers will no longer be able to exclude children with preexisting conditions from being covered by their family policy. For current policies, that means insurers will have to rescind preexisting-condition exclusions.” (3)

The medical information site, WEB-MD has some answers about what reform will mean to consumers: Question: “What provisions begin soon? “Answer: “Starting this year, children up to age 26 would be allowed to remain on their parents’ health plan. People with pre-existing medical conditions would be eligible for a new federally funded “high-risk” insurance program. Small businesses could qualify for tax credits of up to 35% of the cost of premiums. Insurance plans would be barred from setting lifetime caps on coverage and would no longer be able to cancel policies when a patient gets sick. Health plans would also be prohibited from excluding pre-existing conditions from coverage for children. “(4)

So there is no “Oops” as the Weekly Standard claims. Kids with preexisting conditions will be able to get insurance coverage this year.

(1) http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/oops-health-care-bill-does-not-cover-kids-pre-existing-conditions
(2)http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jYnajhWrPEXihcCrpRNfUKN7rN-AD9EKTKIG0
(3) http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0324/Health-care-reform-bill-101-rules-for-preexisting-conditions
(4) http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20100322/faq-how-health-care-reform-will-affect-consumers-employers?ecd=wnl_day_032410

(5) http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/ahip-responds-to-sebelius-letter-about-kids-with-pre-existing-conditions.php

Research credit: Barbara Moore