(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
sent a sharply worded letter to Mark Ganz, the President and CEO of Regence
BlueShield calling on him to rescind a recent decision to stop offering
child-only health insurance policies. In her letter, Murray made clear that the
decision is an example of why Washington families are dissatisfied with health insurance companies and why health insurance
reform, which gives customers strong new protections from insurance company
practices, is so vital.
“For too long the rules of the road have put insurance
companies in a position where they can pick winners and losers by putting
profits before patients,” Senator Murray wrote. “The Affordable
Care Act finally puts patients on an even playing field. Your decision to cut
health insurance for kids and pad the bottom line is an attempt to go back to a
broken system. I ask that you rescind this misguided policy and work with me to
ensure that pre-existing condition exclusions for children never again prevent
Washington state children from getting the care they need. Otherwise, I will be
forced to look at any legislative remedy to ensure that everyone – especially
children – have access to affordable health care coverage.”
The text of Senator Murray’s full letter follows:
September
30, 2010
Mr. Mark B. Ganz
President and Chief Executive Officer
Regence BlueShield of Washington
P.O. Box 1271 Mailstop E15A
Portland, Oregon 97207-1271
Dear Mr. Ganz,
I am writing to strongly encourage you to rescind your
September 28th decision to stop selling new child-only individual health
insurance policies beginning October 1st. If there was ever a decision to point
to on why Americans distrust health insurance companies and their practices,
this is it. And if there was ever a reason to point to on why it was
absolutely necessary for us to pass strong new patient protections in the
Affordable Care Act, this is it as well. Your decision is clearly a veiled
attempt to circumvent the intent of Congress and the safeguards included for
children.
Each year, tens of thousands of children who either were
born with or developed a costly medical condition were denied coverage by
insurers. The Affordable Care Act stops this egregious practice and prohibits
children from being denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition,
helping them and their parents gain access to stable health insurance coverage
and care. Specifically, group health plans and new individual market
policies may not deny coverage to a child because of a pre-existing condition
in plan or policy years staring on or after September 23, 2010.
On June 22, the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and
Health and Human Services (HHS) issued straightforward regulations implementing
this law. On July 27, in response to concerns expressed by the insurance
industry, HHS released further guidance, clarifying that plans would not be violating
the new rules if they allowed children to enroll in insurance only during a
specified open enrollment period, to help limit instances of parents enrolling
their child in a policy only when they became ill or needed treatment. To
address your concerns Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler
issued an emergency rule last week, allowing individual health plans to limit
their risk by creating a special open-enrollment period from November 1 –
December 15.
Unfortunately, this was not enough and you seem
want to go further – by making a profit-driven decision on the backs of
children with pre-existing conditions. These children still have new coverage
options and protections under the reform law that they didn’t have before, but
unfortunately you have decided to stop offering child-only policies because it
does not help your bottom line.
The prohibition on discrimination against children
with pre-existing conditions has widespread support, including from the health
insurance industry. In a letter to Secretary Sebelius on March 29, the
head of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the nation’s largest health insurance
association, wrote, “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. That is why health plans in 2008 proposed reforms
to make pre-existing condition exclusions a thing of the past.”
For too long the rules of the road have put
insurance companies in a position where they can pick winners and losers by
putting profits before patients. The Affordable Care Act finally puts patients
on an even playing field. Your decision to cut health insurance for kids and
pad the bottom line is an attempt to go back to a broken system. I ask that you
rescind this misguided policy and work with me to ensure that pre-existing
condition exclusions for children never again prevent Washington state children
from getting the care they need. Otherwise, I will be forced to look at any
legislative remedy to ensure that everyone – especially children – have access
to affordable health care coverage.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator
Patty Murray
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