Special Needs Kids’ Parents Should Rejoice Over Health Care Bill

November 8, 2009

On Saturday, November 7th, 2009, The House of Representative passed the bill H.R. 3962, a reform on the health care industry in America. What does this mean for parents of special needs kids? The biggest pieces of this legislation is the removal of the insurance companies’ ability to deny coverage based on “pre-existing conditions” and the public insurance exchange.

No matter what your party affiliation, it is hard to deny that it was time for things to change in the insurance area. You may not agree that it was the government’s job to make these changes or you may think that the government is the only thing that could. Either way, the reform is on its way. The Senate is likely to pass a bill as well. The full outcome of the blending of the two bills is not yet known and will have to be monitored as it develops, but in the meantime there is news to be happy about!

First, removing the ability for an insurance company to deny coverage based on a “pre-existing coverage” is a huge deal for parents with special needs kids. Many parents lose their job when their child has special needs because of the time involved in taking care of that child or other related issues. Then that parent has to get a new job with new insurance. That new insurance company will not pay for t hat child’s medication, treatments, doctor visits, and so forth if the child was diagnosed before the parent began the new insurance coverage. What does this mean? Children die. Parents go bankrupt and lose their homes effectively becoming homeless.

Think of this… your child is diagnosed with cancer. This involves weekly trips to the hospital for chemotherapy treatments (or daily in some cases), visits with the medical oncologist, medication given during chemotherapy, medication given to counteract the side effects from chemotherapy, testing, imaging, and so forth. It’s a very expensive endeavor. Then, in the middle of it, a parent has to change jobs. Either the parent was laid off because the business closed or the position was moved overseas or some other reason. The parent fortunately finds another job but this insurance company won’t pay for those treatments, doctor visits, medications, and tests. What should that parent do? Parents have sold their homes, drained their savings, drained college accounts, drained all other resources including the resources of their family members and yet the battle has to continue because sometimes a child’s cancer takes years to cure. But it is curable.

With the passage of H.R. 3962, none of that will happen again. A parent will be able to continue coverage for their child.

The other option is perhaps the most hotly debated aspect: the public option. I think people misunderstand what a public option is exactly. Many parents, because of financial issues, have had to rely on Medicaid for their children’s health care insurance. A public option is just that: an option that is available to the public, if it is necessary. It will be similar to the Medicare or Medicaid. Now, those systems are not perfect by far but it is certainly better than nothing.

Currently, in the Uni ted States, millions of people have nothing. A public option will be an affordable option so that they can maintain proper health, which in the long-term will save tax payer’s money. It’s a lot more costly to treat a person once a medical crisis occurs than to prevent that medical crisis by using preventive medicine. Without health care insurance, a person cannot usually maintain a preventive medicine plan.

The public option is NOT a socialized medical insurance program. It is not a single-payer program. It is simply a more affordable option for those millions of Americans who cannot obtain health insurance through any other means.

I know people debate about the cost, increase in taxes and so forth. That should be left up to the pundits who can best debate that. But for parents of special needs kids, this is nothing but good news. The public option will force the insurance industry to be fair. Fair to us and fair to our children.