A couple nights ago, I mentioned (with scorn) what a terrible PR position some lawyers for health insurance companies had put their clients in, by suggesting they'd quibble and whine -- whine that an arcane "inside-baseball" definitional phrase had not been employed as clearly as it could have been, by Congress -- when drafting and passing the reform package. I think the CEOs just got the message: they will NOW cover kids with pre-existing conditions this year.
The New York Times reporting, here:
. . . ."Health plans recognize the significant hardship that a family faces when they are unable to obtain coverage for a child with a pre-existing condition," said Karen M. Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group. Accordingly, she said, "we await and will fully comply with" the rules.
Ms. Ignagni made the commitment in a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, who had said she feared that some insurers might exploit a possible ambiguity in the new health care law to deny coverage to some sick children. . . .
In a Twitter message, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, scored the tug of war as "Kids 1, Insurance Cos 0". . . .
Indeed. Surprising, I suppose -- only insofar as it took a few news cycles to reach the right result, here.
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