Bloomberg–Health Law May Cost Children Coverage as UnitedHealth Ends Plans

UnitedHealth Group Inc. and insurers in Florida and Oklahoma stopped offering children-only health coverage because of the potential added costs of sick youngsters under the new U.S. health-care law, state officials said.

UnitedHealth won’t sell new policies that cover only children, foreclosing an option used by parents seeing cheaper care, Kevin McCarty, Florida’s insurance commissioner, said today at a meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in Washington, D.C. Tyler Mason, a UnitedHealth spokesman, disputed McCarty’s statement in a telephone interview, saying the company is still issuing such coverage.

The law championed by President Barack Obama bans insurers from denying coverage to children based on their health. That makes it more difficult for health plans to predict costs because families can wait until a child is sick to buy coverage, according to Kim Holland, Oklahoma’s commissioner. She and Sandy Praeger, Kansas’ commissioner, said insurers in their states have dropped child-only plans as well, or discussed the idea.

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, * Economics, Politics, --The 2009 American Health Care Reform Debate, Children, Corporations/Corporate Life, Economy, Health & Medicine, Law & Legal Issues, Office of the President, Politics in General, President Barack Obama

3 comments on “Bloomberg–Health Law May Cost Children Coverage as UnitedHealth Ends Plans

  1. Terry Chapman says:

    Stupid or evil. Harder and harder to tell.

  2. dwstroudmd+ says:

    Neither. This is the result of Obama-care approved by Democrats. You get what you pays for. If pay zero…………………………………, well do the math. Except math seems a weak point these days.

  3. Creedal Episcopalian says:

    Or both. Government now has control of (literally) your life. And we will pay them more for that privilege.