National Patient Advocate Foundation Hails Senator Rockefeller for Introducing Bill Protecting Patient Access to Healt...( Rockefeller Bill Will Help End In...),Health

Rockefeller Bill Will Help End Insurance Coverage Exclusions for Pre-existing Conditions for Individuals and Small-Business Owners

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 /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 Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) for acting to protect Americans at risk of being denied health insurance coverage as a result of pre-existing conditions.

"Because of gaps in current law, many Americans suffering from chronic, disabling, and life-threatening conditions either have no health insurance coverage or are continuously at risk of losing the coverage they have," said Nancy Davenport-Ennis, President and CEO of NPAF. "Closing these gaps is a central component of NPAF's ongoing initiative to end pre-existing condition exclusions, and we applaud and thank Senator Rockefeller for his leadership on this important issue."

The Rockefeller legislation, S. 2236, the "Pre-Existing Conditions Exclusion Patient Protection Act of 2007" amends provisions in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) that currently allows patients to be denied health insurance coverage. The Rockefeller legislation would extend the protections of HIPPA that already cover group policies to individuals and small businesses, which often find it difficult or impossible to attain health coverage when someone has a pre-existing condition. Often insurers will either refuse to issue policies, or will charge so much for the policies when a person has a pre-existing condition that it is simply unaffordable.

Davenport-Ennis called the legislation "an important step in the fight to eradicate pre-existing condition exclusions from the private insurance market," but she cautioned that the battle is not for the faint of h
'/>"/>