Another ObamaCare Lie: Protecting Those With Pre-Existing Conditions

We Get the Government We Deserve

From IBD:

The Affordable Care Act gets curioser and curioser. President Obama promised to protect people with pre-existing conditions and help the uninsured. Yet these vulnerable groups are getting clobbered. 

Congress needs to act to protect them and not wait until the entire misadventure plays out. Here's a plan of action: The people most threatened by ObamaCare have pre-existing conditions, meaning health problems that make it hard to get insurance. 

To sell ObamaCare, the president actually lied, claiming he would protect these people. He even lied that his mother, Anne Dunham, a cancer victim, suffered because her insurer used the pre-existing condition excuse to drop her. 

The truth, revealed in a 2011 biography, is she had employer-provided insurance which paid her hospital bills until the end of her life. Since 1996, employer-provided plans have been barred from dropping or excluding anyone based on a pre-existing condition. Nor does Medicare or Medicaid. 

The pre-existing conditions problem affects about 2 million people in the individual market. The best options for these sick people are being closed because of ObamaCare. 

In 35 states, they currently get coverage through high-risk pools, where premiums are subsidized to help keep them within reach. Most of these pools have long waiting lists. But high-risk pools must close on Dec. 31, 2013, or shortly after, because the Affordable Care Act directs ill patients to enroll in ObamaCare exchange plans. 

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