Fort Report: Preexisting Conditions

Press Release

I have a child who was born with congenital heart defects. She has had twelve surgeries. It's been traumatic. But she's with us and doing well. Thankfully.

When she was born, her mother and I naturally wanted to do everything to get her well, searching the world over for the latest science. One of our other concerns was what would happen in the future. At that time, she could be excluded from health insurance once she turned 18. It was another burden affecting us, and many other families. I thought this was wrong.

Let's be clear: today it is the law of the land that a person cannot be excluded from health insurance due to a preexisting condition. Other complexities in this law----which has helped some and hurt others----have convoluted our health care system. Should that law, The Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare or the ACA, ever change, I am committed, as I have long been committed, to ensuring that one thing will not change: people with preexisting conditions will be able to access health insurance.

As an example of clear action, last year, I joined with a Democrat colleague on her bill----currently as the sole Republican----to ensure that preexisting conditions are covered. In our bill, which was included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, we deploy a creative solution called invisible risk-sharing----a way of saying that people with preexisting conditions will pay the same rate as anyone else for their health insurance. That's only fair.

This bill's solution is called "invisible" because its high-risk beneficiaries are literally blind to its existence. Instead of being singled out for higher fees due to costly preexisting conditions, those suffering from serious health issues are subsidized by public funds. This approach has been tried with great success in Alaska, Maine, and Minnesota. In Maine, for a 60-year-old male with a Silver Plan on the ACA, this reinsurance model lowered premiums by 42%. As Maine and other states discovered, if premiums are kept affordable for everyone, the healthy who are paying the full amount will more likely stay on the insurance plan, keeping it solvent.

This "fix" doesn't mean that our health care system is suddenly fine as is. It should be repaired and redesigned with a focus on value, access, and genuine health improvement. Sadly, even in states with "full" insurance access, life expectancy went down between 2015 and 2018.

Any overhaul is ultimately about restoring and re-envisioning the doctor-patient relationship, providing better outcomes at lower cost, and expanding access to life-saving treatments. Several of these notions are unpacked in a section of my website called Great Big Ideas. I invite you to review my proposals and share your Great Big Ideas on health care with me.

You should know my daughter is now in college and flourishing. If any member of your family is facing similar difficulties due to a preexisting condition, I am convicted that no future health care construct, Democrat or Republican, will ever exclude them again.

Source