National Patient Advocate Foundation Applauds Senators Lautenberg and Brown and Representatives Schwartz and DeGette for Introduction of Legislation to Protect Health Care Coverage fo...( Children's Health Protection Act Will...),Health

Children's Health Protection Act Will End Pre-Existing Coverage Limitations for Children With Private Insurance, Safeguard Access to Care for Children With Chronic Illness

WASHINGTON, March 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Patient Advocate Foundation (NPAF) - a national, non-profit organization dedicated to the mission of creating avenues of improved patient access to health care through public policy reform at the state and federal levels - today praised Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-PA-13) and Diana DeGette (D-CO-01) for introducing The Children's Health Protection Act to protect health coverage for children with chronic medical conditions. The Lautenberg- Schwartz legislation takes an important and very necessary step in protecting children unable to attain private health insurance coverage as a result of pre-existing medical conditions.

Approximately 20 percent of school-aged children suffer from a chronic illness which could preclude them from accessing insurance coverage. The Children's Health Protection Act would protect these children. It will also protect those among the almost nine million American children who are uninsured and need care for the treatment for pre-existing conditions. Children in America with chronic, disabling and life-threatening conditions often fall through the cracks because our current law prevents them from gaining health insurance coverage that delivers access to the medical care they so desperately need. However, a child's health should never be threatened due to a parent's selection of health insurance or an employer's decision to drop a family's coverage.

"Senators Lautenberg and Brown and Representatives Schwartz and DeGette have taken an important step in protecting chronically ill children at risk of having no health insurance by introducing this legislation, said Nancy Davenport-Ennis, F
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