They really do. From their PLEDGE TO AMERICA:
We offer a plan to repeal and replace the government takeover of health care with common-sense solutions focused on lowering costs and protecting American jobs. We will enact real medical liability reform; allow Americans to purchase health coverage across state lines; empower small businesses with greater purchasing power; and create new incentives to save for future health needs. We will protect the doctor-patient relationship, and ensure that those with pre-existing conditions gain access to the coverage they need. We will permanently end taxpayer funding of abortion and codify the Hyde Amendment.
They will ensure that those with pre-existing conditions gain access to the coverage they need by repealing the law? Mike Huckabee was more explicit about what they meant.
Pleasing the crowd, Huckabee launched into a long attack on the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform bill passed into law earlier this year. In an odd political move, Huckabee came out swinging against the most popular aspect of the bill, outlawing insurance companies from denying health coverage to those with preexisting conditions.
How do Americans feel about that? See the WSJ:
Most popular by a mile: "Requiring that health insurance companies cover people with pre-existing medical conditions." Sixty-three percent of respondents said that proposal "absolutely must" be included as part of any final legislation, and another 26% said they "would prefer" for it to be included.
Kevin Sack, writing in the NY Times today, gives a rel life example of what would be lost.
Bill and Victoria Strong's 3-year-old daughter, who has a degenerative condition, can now be covered by health insurance that does not have a lifetime cap on benefits.
Two of Joe and Mary Thompson's three children were denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions; that changes under the new health care law.
Georges Benjamin (executive director, APHA and a physician), writing in the Baltimore Sun:
Wednesday, if you had a pre-existing health condition, you could be flatly denied insurance coverage. If you were a young person recently graduated from college — but without a job — your parents could no longer carry you on their insurance until you got on your feet. And if you had an expensive medical condition, your insurance benefits could be cut off at a certain lifetime limit, possibly forcing you into poverty to pay your medical bills.
Starting Thursday, those things are no longer true — thanks to the much-maligned health reform bill passed earlier this year.
Dr. Benjamin elaborates:
The new law will guarantee millions of Americans access to quality, affordable care regardless of health status; decrease rates of the nation's leading chronic diseases; control soaring health spending; and strengthen our battered public health infrastructure.
All health plans after Thursday must allow children to remain on their parents' plans until age 26. Also, a ban on lifetime benefit limits as well as on excluding coverage to young people due to a pre-existing condition will take effect. These provisions join other lifesaving measures already in place, including key investments in prevention and wellness.
Specifically, the Prevention and Public Health Fund invests in proven strategies that prevent people from getting sick in the first place — and that save lives and money down the road. It funds community-based programs that help people who use tobacco (our nation's leading preventable cause of death) to quit and prevent others from starting. It supports initiatives to reduce diabetes and heart disease, strengthen breast and colon cancer screenings, and provide adult vaccine programs.
So the Republicans want to repeal these measures and tell the Strongs their daughter is out of luck? Good luck with that.
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