HR3590 Health Care Bill & Government Health Insurance

The Washington Post reports that the President met with chief executives of several major insurance companies to warn them against using the new health care reform law to increase premiums.

The President gave the following message: “There are genuine cost drivers that are not caused by insurance companies. But what is also true is that we’ve got to make sure this new law is not being used as an excuse to simply drive up costs. The CEOs here today need to know that they’re going to be required to justify unreasonable premium increases.”

The meeting was deemed as “very constructive” by the chief executives in attendance, who viewed it as an opportunity to point out that the increase in premiums is not necessarily brought about by a perceived greed on the part of insurance companies but rather on an increase in the cost of medical services and medicines as well as “recessionary pressures.”

The President used the meeting as an opportunity to remind insurance providers of the ban on discrimination, which includes, among others, a ban on the revocation on the insurance coverage of sick plan holders who made unintentional mistakes when filling up their application as well as a ban on the setting of lifetime limits on coverage. An estimated one hundred million Americans are said to be affected by such limits. The ban on denying coverage for children with pre-existing conditions is also included in the ban on discriminatory practices.

Health care reform also includes provisions that state that new health plans will have to allow parents to choose any participating pediatrician who is available to become their children’s primary care doctor.