This afternoon, WCCF was pleased to participate in the announcement of the WI Patients’ Bill of Rights. Sponsored by Rep. Jon Richards and Sen. Jon Erpenbach, this bill looks for common ground around health care reform by addressing the pro-consumer measures from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), on which there is very broad public support, and on which there should be broad bipartisan agreement in the Legislature.
The bill would fold those measures into the state statutes. Some of the key provisions of this bill for children in Wisconsin include the following:
- Immediately, insurers in all new health plans will not be able to deny coverage to kids under 19 because of a pre-existing condition, and in 2014 this benefit will be extended to all Wisconsinites.
- All new health plans will be required to cover preventive services for children, like immunizations, vision screenings, and depression screenings for teens, without a co-pay.
- The bill ensures that women and their newborns are covered for their hospital stay for no less than 48 hours after delivery and 96 hours after a cesarean section.
- Insurers are prohibited from imposing a lifetime limit on the dollar value of coverage, and in 2014 plans will not be able to impose an annual limit on coverage.
WCCF believes these popular and sensible measures from the ACA should be incorporated into state statutes, so they have the force of law regardless of how federal judges rule on the Constitutionality of the federal law.
Another bill, AB 210, which was introduced by Rep. Petersen and relates to the “implementation of health insurance reform, providing an exemption from emergency rule procedures, and granting rule-making authority,” would repeal these consumer protections if the ACA was found unconstitutional. Additionally, though AB 210 is being described as implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it includes numerous provisions not required by health reform and contrary to consumer protections, including:
- granting emergency rule-making authority to the Insurance Commissioner without finding of emergency,
- repealing the WI statutes related to internal and external appeals (which are more generous than those required by the ACA), and
- allowing the Insurance Commissioner to refuse to disclose rate filing information if it’s determined to be proprietary.
For a more detailed analysis of AB 210 see ABC for Health’s HealthWatch Wisconsin newsletter here, and the full bill text with a Legislative Reference Bureau summary here.
There will be a public hearing on AB 210 on September 15th at 10:45 AM in room 328 Northwest of the Capital. We encourage advocates to attend and share their concerns with the extraneous elements of this bill.
Sara Eskrich