Urgent Brain Injury Health Care Reform
Brain Injury Association of America notes The House of Representatives is set to vote on the Senate health care reform bill at the end of this week.
Call Your Representative NOW – The House will Vote on Health Care Reform this Week!
The House of Representatives is set to vote on the Senate health care reform bill at the end of this week. If the measure fails, the hope of health care reform will likely vanish for this year and maybe even for years to come.
Even though the House and Senate have both passed their versions of health care reform, the only way forward for the bill is for the House to approve the Senate version.
Your voice matters now more than ever. Call TOLL FREE 1-888-876-6242, if you don’t know who your representative is, click here.
Tell your representative that you are a constituent that is concerned about health care reform. Specifically, people that have sustained brain injuries need health care reform because:
- Millions with health insurance are now at the mercy of insurance companies that charge premiums beyond affordability. The legislation would limit these increases.
- Many with insurance find that it won't cover them when they get sick - even after they have paid premiums for years. The legislation will ban denials based on pre-existing conditions in children and adults.
- Patients who reach their lifetime insurance cap after a catastrophic injury or illness will be able to continue treatment in order to regain functionality and have a better chance of returning to work or school. The bill will eliminate lifetime insurance limits.
AND...
Investing money now will save the government millions of dollars later when the private insurance companies are required to take responsibility for the premiums they collect instead of turning individuals facing catastrophic injury or illness away to rely on public plans and ultimately, the American taxpayers.
Some representatives in the House are debating on whether to vote for or against the bill. Regardless of how they voted in the past, many are still waying their options. This measure is vital to the brain injury community, and we need your help to ensure that people with brain injury gain access to the care that they need and deserve! CALL NOW!
Tim,
What will this health care reform do to the personal injury practice?
Vic -
Hi. Great hearing from you. Is this a trick question?...
There are specific provisions in the bill which will assist brain injury survivors. This, you know, is my area of interest in personal injury cases.
- Millions with health insurance are now at the mercy of insurance companies that charge premiums beyond affordability. The legislation would limit these increases.
- Many with insurance find that it won't cover them when they get sick - even after they have paid premiums for years. The legislation will ban denials based on pre-existing conditions in children and adults.
- Patients who reach their lifetime insurance cap after a catastrophic injury or illness will be able to continue treatment in order to regain functionality and have a better chance of returning to work or school. The bill will eliminate lifetime insurance limits.
With brain injury so front and center of these past years - signature war (blast) injury, the controversial football issues, not to mention the boxers laying at UMC with no insurance - the health care reform will pass, in my opinion the cost of much needed, and often denied, care from the taxpayer to the insurance company.
And the insurer will still keep profits up becasue they will have that many more policies as mandated by the bill.
But you raise interesting points about how the insurance company will treat personal injury claims if the bill is passed. I welcome your thoughts as both a veteran lawyer and judge.
Tim
Thanks Tim for the thoughts. I have heard the arguments for and against the current health care reform but have never seen anything that specifically examines it in the field of personal injury litigation. And frankly, I had not thought about it until I saw you email so I inquired to see if you had heard any analysis from this perspective. As a "veteran lawyer", I don't know. Many, many of my clients have come to me because they don't have insurance and have no other way to get the medical care they need with out treatment "on a lien" to get better. From that vantage point I see a need for universal health care because there are an amazing number of people out there that are uninsured and living on the edge and an unexpected illness or injury will push them over the edge. On the other hand from a selfish stand point I know that many of the insurance adjusters look at the amount of the medical expenses to determine pain and suffering. Thus when I have a client that treats through the military or an HMO (on in one case where my client was a local surgeon with a broken hip whose treatment was all free as professional courtesy) where the amount of meds are limited, it is often difficult to get a fair settlement. So I wonder how health care reform will effect that. Or how about the case of a permanent injury that requires on going medical care. Since that ongoing care would be covered, would that no longer be part of the measure of damage?
Another issue would be subragation. Would there be a statutory requirement of subrogation like with medicare? Would that be negotiable.
Just some of the thoughts that come to mind. I guess we will all see soon. It may be a learning experience for all over the next few years.
Thanks for your blog.