This morning the Daily Camera editorial staff took the opportunity of the widely reported decline of insurance coverage of a Grand Junction “fat” baby to applaud Olympia Snowe’s vote to move healthcare reform forward.
At the moment, my issue has more to do with the media reporting of the “fat” baby insurance decline. My response to the editorial is below…
It is a monumental issue no doubt, on that we can agree. However, the immediate lessons from the Grand Junction baby story are the byznantine rules of the healthcare system and the burden it puts on the average person not to misstep, not the inability to find health insurance for the baby. For example:
1. The baby WAS insured when he was born.
2. From everything I read, the parents voluntarily dropped insurance. Big mistake.
3. Never ever drop insurance until you have an issued policy from another provider.
4. If the father wasn’t in the media spotlight, the parents would have done what every other family would have already done, look at another insurance company.
5. Why didn’t they do just that?
Believe it or not, they are not all the same (of course that might change!). I’m looking at a table right now that shows 4 months old, 11- 19 pounds. Of course I have not seen reported who the previous insurance company was. Why not paint them as a villan since they apparently raised rates 40%?
If the parents have insurance, babies are automatically covered for the 1st 30 days. To maintain coverage simply requires notifying the insurance coverage and paying the new rate. The new rate is not based on the health of the baby.
Obviously there is an issue if the baby is born to uninsured parents. In Colorado the child could be put on the Colorado “public option” Cover Colorado, which was also an option to the parents above after the initial decline from Rocky Mountain Health. (note that in some states there is no other option). As soon as their baby fell into the Rocky Mountain Health Plans body build tables they could move him over.
Everyone realizes there are problems with healthcare. There are numerous ways to approach the problem that don’t require such a giant leap of faith (yea I know, hope and change). The fact is that almost every public option has turned into a giant money sink, from Tennessee and Hawaii to Massachussetts. Interestingly, Cover Colorado is also concerned about it’s long term viability. No doubt, the laws of physics and economics don’t apply to the Obama administration (or the DC editorial staff) at the present time, but eventually when all the shouting is over, they will.
10/16 slight editing of the first paragraph to make more clear.
