Monday, March 29, 2010

Gaming the system

Ralph Nader on Democracy Now!, March 18, 2010 on the health care package passed by Congress:

The 2,500 pages is full of opportunities and ambiguities for the insurance companies to game the system and to make it even worse.

And let’s say there are more people covered, right? Well, they’re being forced to buy junk insurance policies. There’s no regulation of insurance prices. There’s no regulation of the antitrust laws on this. Everything went down that Dennis (Kucinich) was fighting for. There’s no regulation that prevents the insurance companies from taking this papier-mâché bill and lighting a fire to it and making a mockery of it.

Today:

Insurers find loophole in health bill, say they don’t have to cover sick kids

Democrats said their health care legislation would provide greater medical security to those in need. But it appears to fall short on protecting arguably the most vulnerable demographic: sick children.


Insurance companies wasted no time after the bill was passed to unearth a loophole that allowed them to deny coverage to children with pre-existing illnesses for the next four years.


According to the New York Times, "Insurers agree that if they provide insurance for a child, they must cover pre-existing conditions. But, they say, the law does not require them to write insurance for the child and it does not guarantee the 'availability of coverage' for all until 2014."

LESS THAN A WEEK after the bill is signed. What next?

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