Newborn with heart defect is denied insurance coverage

[Echo In Light]

From Ken Anderson, who draws the right conclusion from this sorry episode:

Mark,

It’s amazing to me that these insurance companies simply keep on with
business as usual — or worse than usual — as though nothing is in the
air. I guess that is confidence borne of already knowing that you have
cut some sweet deals with Obama, so nothing to worry about. I have to
wonder how long this pre-existing condition ban will stay in place, or
whether it is as strong as it needs to be.

Ken

Newborn With Heart Defect Is Denied Insurance Coverage
Posted Thursday, Mar. 25, 2010
BY JAN JARVIS

At birth, Houston Tracy let out a single loud cry before his father cut the cord and handed him to a nurse.

Instantly, Doug Tracy knew something was wrong with his son.

“He wasn’t turning pink fast enough,” Tracy said. “When they listened to his chest, they realized he had an issue.”

That turned out to be d-transposition of the great arteries, a defect in which the two major vessels that carry blood away from the heart are reversed. The condition causes babies to turn blue.

Read more:

http://markcrispinmiller.com/2010/03/newborn-with-heart-defect-is-denied-insurance-coverage/

[leftstreet]

1. Business is BETTER than usual for BigMed

This will only get worse

How can they possibly make profits if the dumb Serfs insist on having expensive problems?

:scared:

[Maru Kitteh]

15. Please provide a link for your assertion.

I'm curious to see you provide a link to the exact portion of the bill that will allow a newborn to be denied coverage.

[aquart]

16. They won't be able to. They'll collapse.

Then government will have to decide on bailout or takeover.

[madmax]

2. Who cares

He's out of the womb, now he's on his own. :sarcasm:

edited to add sarcasm

[Echo In Light]

4. G.Carlin re RWers: "If you're pre-natal, you're okay. If you're pre-school, you're fucked."

[madmax]

6. He was a National Treasure

and he lives on.

[Echo In Light]

9. Like the late Bill Hicks, he'll be even more widely cited posthumously

[jgraz]

11. Who is this "G. Carlin" to which you refer?

[Echo In Light]

12. Obscure, oft-quoted social malcontent who claimed "insubordination" defined his life

lol ;)

http://www.appleson.com/Dave%20Carson%20Photos/Cubby%20Koda%20BS,%20Pat%20Appleson,%20George%20Carlin%20pat166.jpg

[jgraz]

13. Obviously another Dirty Fucking Hippie

:P

[Echo In Light]

14. Thankfully, yes

:toast:

[KamaAina]

3. Because of a "pre-existing condition", no less

So THAT'S why the reich-wing keeps trying to define personhood as begging at conception! All this abortion stuff is just a smokescreen! The're really shilling for Big Insurance! :sarcasm:

[Echo In Light]

5. Thanks for the un-recs, RW stooges!

:thumbsdown:

[Hannah Bell]

7. for-profit health care = death. your ill-health & death = their profit.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. +1000

[Greyhound]

8. I'm sure once these people have total control over health care, they will be beneficent

and just in their adjudication over their ~15% of the economy. After all, it is well known that the rich and powerful are rich and powerful because they are simply better, smarter, and just work so much harder than us lazy proles.
:kick: & R

[area51]

30. Yep.

Now that by law almost all Americans will be slaves to the for-profit serial-killer insurance companies, they'll suddenly "get Jesus" and stop denying and delaying claims which kill people. Also, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I'd like to sell some DU'ers. :toast:

[quiet.american]

17. You do understand that at 6 mos old, the baby will be able to get insurance?

I don't like it any more than anyone else that it looks like this little baby will have to go without insurance for 6 months, but what part of:

NO DISCRIMINATON AGAINST CHILDREN WITH PRE‐EXISTING CONDITIONS—Prohibits health plans from
denying coverage to children with pre‐existing conditions. Effective 6 months after enactment.
http://docs.house.gov/energycommerce/IMMEDIATE_PROVISIONS.pdf

-- is unclear?

Since the baby is just eight days younger than the signing of HCR into law, six months from now, when this provision becomes effective, the baby will be 6 months old and will not be able to be denied insurance.

[Echo In Light]

20. Looks good on paper. Beyond that...? Time will tell.

[quiet.american]

21. Well, beyond that, the baby will be able to stay on his parents' insurance til 2036.

Until he turns 26 years old. :)

But I understand what you're saying. Will it really be enforced. All I can say is now that it's law - insurance companies who are not in compliance will be barred from participating in the upcoming Exchange(s), for one thing. But I hope people have a long memory about Blue Cross/Blue Shield. I read somewhere that some insurance companies are already coming into compliance before the effective dates of the different provisions. Blue Cross / Blue Shield looks to be going into the opposite direction - stretching it out until the last possible moment. How anyone denies insurance to a baby -- that's just vicious.

[Hannah Bell]

23. maybe you missed this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8007046

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. kick

[Odin2005]

19. K&R

[librechik]

22. The unborn: previously unmined source of pre-existing conditions

[Echo In Light]

24. Bump

[malaise]

25. But but but

if his mother had attempted to abort him, the RWs would have lined the streets or shot the doctor. The same folks are protesting against health care. I no longer know whether to laugh or cry.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. It's easy peasey... love the fetus & screw the born.

[Indy Lurker]

27. Pre-existing Conditions

Pre-existing relate to conditions that occurs before you become a customer.

Unfortunately, neither parent had health insurance (their other children do, but not the parents). If either parent had health insurance, they wouldn't have had any problems adding their newborn to their insurance.

Instead, they are asking to sign up their newborn son as a NEW customer for health insurance knowing he will immediately need expensive heart surgery.

Also, I don't think this will fall under the new pre-existing condition part of the law in six months for this family.

I don't believe insurance companies will be forced to sell individual coverage policies to very sick individuals.

If you could sign up for NEW insurance after you find out you need expensive surgery, then drop the coverage after the surgery, the system would never work.

I believe the pre-existing condition will apply to EXISTING customers with medical conditions that pre-date becoming customers.

That's not to say they can get onto a plan somewhere.

The other option is for one of the parents to go to work for a company that offers health insurance, and by contract, the company's health insurer is obligated to cover family members. This may also be how some of the new exchanges work. We'll have to wait and see.

In the past, such health insurers could deny coverage of such family members because of pre-existing conditions, but not any longer, this is what the new law changes.

[Vinca]

28. If the baby survives until 2014, he's golden.

[libodem]

29. One thought

*Death panel* :sarcasm: