Pre-existing condition
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In the context of
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than a quarter of adults below the age of 65 (approximately 52 million people) had pre-existing conditions in 2016.
Definitions
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center defines a pre-existing condition as a "medical condition that occurred before a program of health benefits went into effect".[1] J. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, has stated on a Fox News Sunday interview that exclusions, based upon these conditions, function as a form of "rationing" of health care.[2]
Conditions can be broken down into two further categories, according to Lisa Smith of Investopedia:[3]
Most insurance companies use one of two definitions to identify such conditions. Under the "objective standard" definition, a pre-existing condition is any condition for which the patient has already received medical advice or treatment prior to enrollment in a new medical insurance plan. Under the broader, "prudent person" definition, a pre-existing condition is anything for which symptoms were present and a prudent person would have sought treatment.
Which definition may be used was sometimes regulated by state laws. Some states required insurance companies to use the objective standard, while others required the prudent person standard. 10 states did not specify either definition, 21 required the "prudent person" standard, and 18 required the "objective" standard.[4]
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than a quarter of adults below the age of 65 (approximately 52 million people) had pre-existing conditions in 2016.[5]
Current U.S. federal regulation
- Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Pub.L. 111–148) enacted March 23, 2010[6]
- Immediate reform: effective June 21, 2010 (90 days after enactment)
- National high-risk pool for individuals with a pre-existing condition who have been uninsured for the prior 6 months
- Premium to be set at a standard rate for a standard population
- Premium for older individuals allowed to be up to 4 times the premium for younger individuals
- Premium for tobacco users allowed to be up to 1.5 times the premium for non-tobacco users
- National high-risk pool for individuals with a pre-existing condition who have been uninsured for the prior 6 months
- Immediate reform: effective September 23, 2010 (6 months after enactment)
- Group health insurance plans and new (non-grandfathered) individual health insurance plans[7]
- Pre-existing condition exclusions prohibited for children under age 19
- Group health insurance plans and new (non-grandfathered) individual health insurance plans[7]
- Reform delayed for 4 years: effective January 1, 2014
- Individual and group health insurance plans
- Pre-existing condition exclusions prohibited in all health insurance plans
- Prohibit treating acts of domestic violence as a pre-existing condition
- Waiting period for enrollment in new health insurance plans limited to 90 days
- Grandfathered existing health insurance plans must prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions by January 1, 2014
- Individual and group health insurance plans
Former regulation
Regulation of pre-existing condition exclusions in individual (non-group) and small group (2 to 50 employees) health insurance plans in the
- Maximum pre-existing condition exclusion period (states that permitted elimination riders permanently excluding pre-existing conditions noted by italics and asterisk*)
- 6 months: Massachusetts, Oregon; New Mexico*
- 9 months: Washington; New Hampshire*
- 12 months: California, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Vermont; Colorado*, Connecticut*, Maryland*, Mississippi*, Montana*, North Carolina*, North Dakota*, Ohio*, Pennsylvania*, Rhode Island*, South Dakota*, Utah*, Virginia*, West Virginia*, Wyoming*
- 18 months: Minnesota
- 2 years: Alabama*, Florida*, Georgia*, Illinois*, Iowa*, Kansas*, South Carolina*, Tennessee*, Texas*, Wisconsin*
- 3 years: Hawaii*
- 10 years: Indiana
- unlimited: Alaska*, Arizona*, Arkansas*, Delaware*, District of Columbia*, Louisiana*, Missouri*, Nebraska*, Nevada*, Oklahoma*
- Elimination riders permanently excluding pre-existing conditions
- Maximum look-back period for pre-existing conditions
- 3 months: New Hampshire
- 6 months: Washington, Wyoming
- 12 months: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia
- 2 years: Florida, Illinois, West Virginia
- 3 years: Montana, Rhode Island,
- 5 years: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Texas
- unlimited: Alaska, Arizona, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin
- Small group (2 to 50 employees) health insurance plans[16]
- Maximum pre-existing condition exclusion period
- 0 months: Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan
- 3 months: Kansas
- 6 months: California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island
- 9 months: Washington
- 12 months: 36 other states + DC
- Maximum look-back period for pre-existing conditions
- 0 months: Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan
- 3 months: Kansas, New Hampshire
- 6 months: 45 other states + DC
- Large group (self-insured) health insurance plans
- Maximum pre-existing condition exclusion period
- 12 months: 50 states + DC
- Maximum look-back period for pre-existing conditions
- 6 months: 50 states + DC
Pre-existing condition exclusions were prohibited for HIPAA-eligible individuals (those with 18 months continuous coverage unbroken for no more than 63 days and coming from a group health insurance plan).
Individual (non-group) health insurance plans could exclude maternity coverage for a pre-existing condition of pregnancy.[2]
Group health insurance plans sponsored by employers with 15 or more employees were prohibited by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 from excluding maternity coverage for a pre-existing condition of pregnancy; this prohibition was extended to all group health insurance plans by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).[2]
Practice and effect
Advocates against pre-existing condition rules argue that they cruelly deny people in need of treatment. State Farm spokeswoman K.C. Eynatten has said, "We realized our position was based on gut feelings, not hard numbers... we became aware that we were part of the reason a woman and her children might not leave an abuser. They were afraid they'd lose their insurance. And we wanted no part of that."[17] Jerry Flanagan, health-care policy director of Consumer Watchdog, has stated that "insurance companies want premiums without any risk" and go to extreme "lengths... to go to make a profit".[18] InsureMe, an insurance quote provider website, has argued that even though health insurance is basically to protect people from very high costs of health care, the commercial health insurance system is not playing fair and are always trying to avoid risk in order to boost their profits.[19]
Some practices by some health insurance companies, such as determining domestic violence to be an excludable pre-existing condition, have been called abuses by Maria Tchijov, a Service Employees International Union new media coordinator, and by an Office of Rural Health Policy report.[17][20][21]
The rationale behind pre-existing condition clauses, according to those who defend the policies, is that they reduce the cost of health insurance coverage for those who still receive it, thus giving more people an opportunity to afford insurance in the first place.
According to the California-based advocacy group
Commentary by lawmakers
According to a
Public opinion
A Time-Abt SRBI poll in late July 2009 found that a large majority of Americans (80%) favored a requirement that insurance companies insure people even if they have pre-existing conditions.[27]
In September 2009, the monthly Kaiser Health Tracking Poll report said:[28]
The public's most unanimous and bipartisan support is saved for a proposal to have the federal government require that health insurance companies cover anyone who applies, even if he/she has a pre-existing condition. Overall, eight in ten back the proposal, including 67 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of political independents and 88 percent of Democrats.
See also
References
- ^ "Billing terminology". Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). 2010. Archived from the original on October 3, 2010. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- ^ PolitiFact.com. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
- ^ Smith, Lisa (February 16, 2009). "Health insurance: paying for pre-existing conditions". Investopedia. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
- ^ "Individual Market Portability Rules (Not Applicable to HIPAA Eligible Individuals)". July 21, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
- ^ Julie Rovner (October 11, 2018). "FACT CHECK: Who's Right About Protections For Pre-Existing Conditions?". NPR.org. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
- ^ "Side-by-side comparison of major health care reform proposals" (PDF). Washington, DC: Kaiser Family Foundation. March 22, 2010.
- ^ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (June 28, 2010). "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Requirements for Group Health Plans and Health Insurance Issuers Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Relating to Preexisting Condition Exclusions, Lifetime and Annual Limits, Rescissions, and Patient Protections; Final Rule and Proposed Rule". Federal Register. 75 (123): 37187–37241. Retrieved July 26, 2010.
- PMID 8188152. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
- Government Printing Office. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
- PMID 9141331. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
- PMID 9637965. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
- PMID 10916957. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
- PMID 12674423. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
- Georgetown Health Policy Institute (January 2010). "Individual market portability rules (not applicable to HIPAA eligible individuals), January 2010". Washington, D.C.: Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved March 31, 2010.)
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has generic name (help - Georgetown Health Policy Institute (January 2010). "Non-group coverage rules for HIPAA eligible individuals, January 2010". Washington, D.C.: Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved March 31, 2010.)
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has generic name (help - Georgetown Health Policy Institute (January 2010). "Small group health insurance market pre-existing condition exclusion rules, January 2010". Washington, D.C.: Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved March 31, 2010.)
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has generic name (help - ^ The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 19, 2009.
- ^ a b Hilzenrath, David S. (September 19, 2009). "Acne, pregnancy among disqualifying conditions". The Washington Post. p. A3. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- ^ "Health insurance tricks to beware of". allinsuranceinfo.org. 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2010.
- ^ Johnson, Rhonda M. (August 30, 2000). "Rural health response to domestic violence: policy and practice issues". Washington, D.C.: Office of Rural Health Policy. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
- ^ Tchijov, Maria (September 11, 2009). "Domestic violence is a 'pre-existing condition'?". SEIU Blog. Service Employees International Union. Archived from the original on September 16, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
- ^ a b Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar; Trevor Tompson (November 17, 2009). "Americans fear health law's costs poll finds". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 16, 2010.[dead link]
- ^ Alonso-Zaldivar, Ricardo; Tompson, Trevor (November 17, 2009). "Americans fear health law's costs poll finds". San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press). p. A118. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- ^ Suderman, Peter (opinion blog) (September 23, 2010). "What the GOP's Pledge has in common with ObamaCare". Hit and Run. Reason. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
- ^ "Text of President Obama's health-care speech". March 3, 2010. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
- ^ Aizenman, N. C.; Kornblut, Anne E. (September 23, 2010). "Obama returns to stump for health care". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Time magazine/Abt SRBI — July 27–28, 2009 survey" (PDF). New York: SRBI. July 29, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 16, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2009.
- ^ "Kaiser Health Tracking Poll—September 2009: Public opinion on health care issues" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Kaiser Family Foundation. September 29, 2009. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
Further reading
- Timm, Jane C. (October 23, 2018). "Fact check: Trump claims GOP is protecting people with pre-existing conditions. Evidence says otherwise". NBC News. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
- Pear, Robert (February 6, 2019). "Democrats Unite to Begin Push to Protect Pre-Existing Condition Coverage". The New York Times. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
- Lovelace, Berkeley Jr. & Breuninger, Kevin (September 24 2020). "Trump to sign executive orders protecting preexisting conditions and seeking a way to prevent surprise medical bills". CNBC.