Unintended effect of health care bill: Some insurers stop writing policies for individual children in Florida

By Martin Merzer on 07/25/2010 @ 10:47 AM

In an unintended consequence of the Obama administration's new health care bill, it turns out that at least two insurance companies have stopped issuing some policies that cover individual children in Florida.

This is a particularly troubling development in this state, where about 800,000 children already do not have health insurance and, as a consequence, often do not receive adequate and ongoing care. Florida ranks 49th in the nation in the percentage of uninsured children.

Widening the availability of health insurance to children is a key objective of the Obama administration's health care initiative. It also is one of the first benefits to take effect. That still will be the case, with many more children likely to be covered by health insurance in the near future.

But now, in an unintended consequence of the new law, two insurance companies in Florida and several companies in other states have stopped writing certain types of health insurance policies for individual children, according to an article by Associated Press Writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar.

The reason: The new law prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to children who already are sick. So, rather than risk being swamped by claims from parents who buy policies only after their children become ill, some companies are not writing any policies that cover individual children.

The problem does not affect policies that cover entire families. That would include most health insurance policies purchased through employer plans or government programs. It only involves some policies that cover individual children.

For more information about this and about how the problem could be resolved, see the entire article here.