This is priceless!!! Yes!!! Bring it on!!! Then the majority of Americans will get the Public Option they wanted all along. Isn't greed and stupidity wonderful?

Do Insurance Companies Want To Give Congress A Reason To Bring Back The Public Option?

By Bill Scher Campaign for America's Future

The NY Times reports today that insurance companies are prepared to interpret the new health care law so they can deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions between now and 2014.

Insurers are daring to do so even though congressional leaders have made clear such a loophole was not their intent, and the White House preparing implementation rules that would clarify the legislative language and prevent such discrimination.

If the insurance industry actually follow through with this threat, it would be a display of astounding stupidity.

No one is disputing that the law's language outright bans all discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, for children and adults, in 2014. So all insurance companies would gain by flouting federal government rules is a mere three years of freedom from the oh-so-terrible burden of helping sick children.

But what they would lose is their reprieve from the public health insurance option.

To secure votes from progressive Senators for the compromise health care bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to hold a vote on creating a public option "in the coming months."

The Senate may well choose to wait on holding such a vote, and see how the insurance industry reaction is to the first round of reforms. Does it eagerly help implement the reforms following the spirit and intent of the law? Or does it seek to wriggle out of the new rules on disputed technicalities?

If insurers seek to escape the new rules, they will be confirming the main contention of the public option advocates: that regulations are not enough, and only competition from a stern public option can change insurance company behavior.

Insurance companies feeling proud of themselves that they beat back the public option may not want to get too cocky this early.

Love, Connie

Forgot to update this one. As most of you probably know by now the insurance companies blinked this time. After spending mega millions in a year long attempt to defeat healthcare for children just to be defeated in the end I guess they didn't want to dump out more futile money. We know it's money that is the only issue here. Were that not the case they wouldn't have been so joyous over finding a loophole that would deny medical care to babies and little children and just let them die. Pres. Obama closed the loophole before he signed the bill's fixes into the law.


Insurance Industry Agrees To Close Child Coverage Loophole

WASHINGTON — After battling President Barack Obama's health care overhaul the better part of a year, the insurance industry said Monday it won't try to block his efforts to fix a potentially embarrassing glitch in the new law.

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the industry's top lobbyist said insurers will accept new regulations to dispel uncertainty over a much-publicized guarantee that children with medical problems can get coverage starting this year.

Quick resolution of the doubts was a win for Obama – and a sign that the industry has no stomach for another war of words with a president who deftly used double-digit rate hikes by the companies to revive his sweeping health care legislation from near collapse in Congress.

"Health plans recognize the significant hardship that a family faces when they are unable to obtain coverage for a child with a pre-existing condition," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said in a letter to Sebelius. Ignagni said that the industry will "fully comply" with the regulations, expected within weeks.

The industry's response followed a sternly worded letter from Sebelius earlier in the day. In it, the administration's top health care official tried to put an end to questions about the law's intent and wording.

"Health insurance reform is designed to prevent any child from being denied coverage because he or she has a pre-existing condition," Sebelius wrote to Ignagni. "Now is not the time to search for nonexistent loopholes that preserve a broken system."

Sebelius specified that a child with a pre-existing medical problem may not be denied access to parents' coverage under the new law. Furthermore, insurers will not be able to insure a child but exclude treatments for a particular medical problem.

"The term 'pre-existing condition exclusion' applies to both a child's access to a plan and his or her benefits once he or she is in the plan," Sebelius wrote. The new protections will be available starting in September, she said.

The fine print of the law was less than completely clear on whether kids with health problems were guaranteed coverage starting this year – as Obama had repeatedly claimed in extolling the legislation that he signed last week.

Love, Connie