Letter: Health care bill would set back the clock
From the start of this health care debate, our lawmakers have promised not to discriminate against pre-existing conditions.
Rep. Dan Newhouse even co-sponsored the Pre-Existing Conditions Protection Act of 2017, designed to ensure enrollees cannot have benefits excluded from a plan due to a pre-existing condition and patients will not pay more based on their health care status.
The latest American Health Care Act amendment reverses 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. Cancer patients could be priced out of the market.
States could 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 set back the clock to when individuals with pre-existing conditions like cancer would essentially be denied coverage in certain states.
As an American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network volunteer, I encourage our senators to deeply consider the ramifications of a bill similar to this one.
Darlene Varley, Benton City
This story was originally published May 9, 2017 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Letter: Health care bill would set back the clock."