One More Way Obamacare Is Hurting Families and Children
In case you hadn’t seen it, Sen. Enzi’s staff earlier today released a report outlining how Obamacare has reduced access to insurance coverage for children across the country. Specifically, the onerous mandates imposed in Obamacare – coupled with the inept way the Administration has implemented the law – has resulted in 17 states not having access to child-only insurance policies. In a total of 39 states, at least one insurance company has exited the child-only insurance marketplace.
These difficulties come because the Administration, in implementing the law, required insurance companies to accept ALL applicants for child-only insurance, regardless of health status. Many companies, fearing (rightly) that they would be deluged with applications from individuals with costly medical conditions, decided to limit their involvement and/or exit the child-only insurance market entirely. Now, thanks to these misguided policies under Obamacare, millions of Americans have no easy options to obtain health insurance coverage for their children.
Former Speaker Pelosi famously said we had to pass the bill to find out what’s in it. Unfortunately, millions of American families seeking to obtain insurance coverage for their children are finding out that a provision designed to increase access to insurance coverage, particularly for children with pre-existing conditions, has in reality only served to decrease access. And if this child-only insurance debacle portends similar problems as Obamacare gets rolled out fully in 2014, millions more Americans may find out the unexpected consequences of the 2,700 page health care law three years from now.