News
Walla Walla Union Bulletin - Letter to the Editor: American Health Care Act
The following letter to the editor was published in the Walla Walla Union Bulletin regarding the American Health Care Act.
By: Kimberly Porter
May 4, 2017
From the start of this health care debate a promise has been repeated: Discriminating against people with a pre-existing condition will not be allowed.
In fact, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers even co-sponsored the Pre-Existing Conditions Protection Act of 2017, introduced in February 2017, which was designed to ensure people cannot have their benefits excluded from a plan due to a pre-existing condition and that patients will not pay more based on their health care status.
The latest amendment to the American Health Care Act goes back on that promise. It allows states the option of waiving the ban on health status rating if they have a high-risk pool — ushering in a patchwork health care system where patients can be charged more for having pre-existing conditions and cancer patients could be priced out of the market.
States would also be allowed to waive the requirement that health coverage must include essential health benefits, leaving cancer patients and survivors with no guarantee that chemotherapy, prescription drugs, prevention services or hospitalization would be covered.
These moves would return us to a time when individuals with pre-existing conditions such as cancer would essentially be denied coverage in certain states.
As an American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network volunteer in Washington’s 5th Congressional District, I urge Rep. McMorris Rodgers to stand by her promise and vote against the AHCA and the MacArthur Amendment.
Kimberly Porter
Walla Walla