Health Care Loophole: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend, Part 1

By GottaLaff

My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about an unpleasant discovery in the Health Care Reform Bill. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Now for his Special Comment:

What Will Be The Next Discovery

On Friday, we learned with great shock, that a loophole exists in the Health Care Reform Bill, that would allow insurance companies to place an annual dollar limit on people coping with costly medical health issues such as cancer, MS, or other catastrophic illnesses and injuries.

The provision was found in the section that banned health insurance companies from having annual or lifetime dollar limitations on medical coverage. The provision mentions that annual limitations would be based upon “unreasonable” medical costs, which is left undefined. So who determines what are “unreasonable” medical costs or is that to be determined by the eye of the beholder?

Shouldn’t their be some guidelines as to what type of medical costs or number of procedures would be considered “unreasonable? Or does a patient have to find it out when its too late to consider alternatives, or has no funds or limited funds to continue the medical procedures?

The reason given by Sen. Max Baucus for the provision change, was the fear that without an annual limitation, premium costs for the American public would increase. I wonder whether Sen. Baucus and others who agreed with the annual limitation provision were really concerned about public’s annual premium costs... or were they more concerned about the profitability of the insurance companies?

So one has to wonder what else is hidden in the bill that is unknown at this time, which could adversely affect the American people from having real true health care reform.

I ask myself: (1) why did it take this long to discover the loophole? (2) Why wasn’t it discussed during the Committee’s hearings or during floor debate? and (3) When was it actually written into the bill? This is beginning to smell like something from the Fulton Fish Market.

Many thanks again for another timely, insightful, and thought-provoking piece, 42bkdodgr. You never fail to say what so many of us are thinking and feeling, and your perspective is invaluable.

Part Two coming right up.

UPDATE: Part Two.