New Patient's Bill of Rights Puts Northeast Ohio Families and Small Businesses First

Press Release

Today, Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) hailed the new Affordable Care Act Patient's Bill of Rights as a landmark expansion of consumer protections that put Northeast Ohio's families and small businesses first when it comes to their health coverage and care.

"Health reform is about standing up for families and small businesses and putting Ohioans - not insurance companies or bureaucrats - in charge of their health care," said Rep. Sutton. "With today's announcement of a new Patient's Bill of Rights, we are going even further to protect Americans from the abuses of the health care industry."

Thanks to the new Patient's Bill of Rights, no longer will insurance companies be allowed to:

*Refuse life-saving emergency room care because the hospital is not affiliated with it,
*Deny coverage or limit benefits for children with pre-existing conditions,
*Arbitrarily drop people who get sick and need coverage most, or
*Place lifetime limits on coverage or set annual dollar limits on coverage

Additionally, parents will be able to keep their adult children under the age of 26 on their health insurance plans; and patients can keep their primary care physicians, pediatricians and OB-GYN even when they change their health insurance plans.

"This new Patient's Bill of Rights stops the discriminatory practices by insurance companies and improves the coverage of 420,000 constituents of mine with health insurance," said Rep. Sutton. "For the family with a child who has diabetes, for the family with a college graduate needing health insurance as he gets his start in life, for the children whose mother is battling cancer - this new Patient's Bill of Rights is for them and for all the families of Northeast Ohio."

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