Health Net Insurance Spends Nearly $700k on Lobbying
There are some health insurance companies where you feel like you are being taken advantage of at every single turn. Hidden charges show up on bills, you don’t have an easy time getting in to see your doctor, and you may spend upward of an hour trying to get the right person on the phone for customer service. This is not to say that health insurance companies exist simply to frustrate you: quite the opposite. Sometimes they just do not seem like they are doing all they can to best serve your interests as a consumer or customer. Health Net, one of America’s biggest health insurance companies serving over 6.7 million people across the country, has recently stepped up to the plate big time in the game of keeping people’s best interests (and health) at heart. In the third quarter of 2008, the insurer spent $670K lobbying with the federal government for a variety of different groups and lifting coverage restrictions.
Speaking Out for Easier Coverage
What exactly is lobbying, some of you might be asking yourselves? Lobbying is the practice of influencing decisions made by government, in this case done by an organized group. So what kind of coverage was Health Net lobbying for toward the end of 2008? As it very well known, it can virtually be impossible for someone with a preexisting medical condition to obtain health insurance coverage. Companies say they do not want to take on that kind of high risk and have to pay thousands in treatments knowingly. Even if you already have a good health insurance plan, you may be denied coverage for certain conditions should they arise while you are covered. It is some one’s job to scrutinize every inch of your health record to try and show that you in some way withheld health history information from the insurance company and therefore won’t be covered for your new illness or condition.
One of the things that Health Net stood up for was the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, which requires group health plans to reduce coverage restrictions for patients with mental illnesses or drug addiction. This means that if you were to become dependent on drugs while covered under a particular company’s plan, you should be able to get treatment for that. Health Net also lobbied on the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act, and on Medicare Advantage and Medicaid issues. A little background on both issues is as follows, so readers can garner the full picture of what Health Net was lobbying for:
According to Pink Ribbon Review, the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act would:
- Guarantee a minimum hospital stay of 48 hours for a woman having a mastectomy or lumpectomy, and 24 hours for a woman undergoing a lymph node removal;
- Require health plans to include notice of these benefits in their monthly mailing and yearly information packet sent to plan participants;
- Require plans to provide full coverage of second opinions should the patient seek one.
As you can probably deduce, these things are not all widely available under current health insurance plans. If I were undergoing something as invasive and traumatic as breast cancer treatment, I certainly would appreciate the “luxury” of getting to recover in the hospital for 48 hours without worrying that my insurance wasn’t going to pay for it.
photo credit: Will Palmer
Tags: breast cancer, health and politics, health care, health care lobbying, health care providers, health care spending, health insurance industry, pre-existing conditions, special insurance topics
February 18th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I have heard that medical insurance will be paid for by the stimulus bill for people making up to $80 Thousand per year. Any truth to this? Please someone claridy this for me. Thanks