AHA backs universal coverage
As Congressional leaders work to merge the House and Senate versions of their healthcare reform bills, the American Hospital Association has asked that any final reform provide universal coverage.
In a Jan. 7 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), AHA Executive Vice President Ron Pollack said hospitals' contribution to financing healthcare reform in the form of payment cuts could be reduced by ensuring that more Americans can receive healthcare coverage under the new legislation.
AHA officials urged that Congress keep the level of coverage proposed in the House bill, which would expand coverage to 36 million people – 96 percent of all those legally residing in the United States – by mandating that individuals and employers purchase insurance.
AHA officials aren't supporting the Senate bill, which would cover 94 percent of all uninsured U.S. residents.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Senate proposal would leave 23 million Americans uninsured by 2019. The House proposal would cover 5 million additional uninsured people, the CBO said, leaving 18 million uninsured in 2019.
"The AHA has long advocated for coverage for all, paid for by all," Pollack said. "To ensure that an individual coverage mandate is meaningful, it will be important that insurance market reforms are not only thorough but also implemented rapidly."
Pollack also said a mandate would be "greatly enhanced by a robust national health insurance exchange with a broad scope of authority that includes regulating health plans."
The AHA is also endorsing:
- Guaranteed issue of coverage;
- Renewability of issued coverage;
- Prohibitions on pre-existing condition exclusions;
- A prohibition on rescissions of coverage;
- A prohibition on lifetime and annual limits;
- Limitations on premium rating bands;
- A prohibition on excessive waiting periods; and
- Health plan medical loss ratio requirements.
Pollack said reforming the insurance market for both the individual and group markets is essential to meaningful healthcare reform.
He urged lawmakers to adopt the earlier implementation dates in the House proposal for health insurance reforms. The House bill puts them in place, in general, by 2010. The Senate bill staggers the implementation of insurance reforms, with the major reforms – such as prohibitions on pre-existing conditions and lifetime and annual limits – not implemented until 2014.
