Lawmakers protest healthcare bill’s caps on benefits over policyholder's

[cal04]

Lawmakers protest healthcare bill’s caps on benefits over policyholder's lifetime
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/76519-lawmakers-protest-health-bills-caps-on-benefits

A cadre of Democratic lawmakers and patient groups is urging congressional Democratic leaders to abandon plans to permit health insurance companies to set lifetime limits on their customers’ benefits.

In letters sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the other senior Democratic lawmakers authoring the final version of healthcare reform legislation, 29 House Democrats and seven Senate Democrats press the leaders to adopt the House’s take on the bill, which would prohibit insurers from establishing a dollar cap on how much they will pay out during a policyholder’s lifetime.

“Individuals with chronic diseases and disorders must not be impeded in accessing necessary health care nor should they be impoverished with unreasonable lifetime limits on benefits,” Democratic Reps. Patrick Kennedy (R.I.), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) and 27 colleagues wrote Friday. Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Al Franken (Minn.) and five other senators wrote a separate letter Thursday.

Sixty-three groups, including the American Heart Association, National Kidney Foundation, Easter Seals and groups representing cancer, brain and spinal cord injury, and other patients penned a similar letter on Jan. 8.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. I had no idea lifetime limits were grandfathered in existing policies

Silly me for not thinking of asking when everyone is trumpeting the end of lifetime caps for not thinking of asking "Excuse, me , you didn't grandfather them or anything into existing policies, did you?"

The article is incorrect I believe when it says there are no annual caps in both the House and Senate version. The Senate version had annual caps slipped in by Harry Reid in his manager's amendment that restored annual limits, but they had to be "reasonable" which would be determined by the Sec. of HHS. That is the loophole the White House said they would "try" to close.

But I'm still trying to figure out how

"And if you like your current insurance, you know the one the legislation forces you to keep, the one with the grandfathered lifetime caps, you will be happy to know that you WILL keep it" will play in rallies.

The response will be deafening.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. kick. This one is under almost all the radar. nt

[Mojorabbit]

3. The way this whole thing has played

out is so very depressing to me.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. There is talk that if Coakley loses the White House will want the House to accept the Senate Bill

That means Word for word, so that no more votes in the Senate would be needed.