Kagen, Citizen Action Wisconsin Join Ranks Against Health Insurance Discrimination
New Report Gives Wisconsin a Failing Grade in Providing Consumer Protections in the Individual Health Insurance Market
(Milwaukee) — With a new report giving Wisconsin a failing grade in protecting consumer shopping for health insurance, Congressman Steve Kagen, MD, and the advocacy group Citizen Action Wisconsin today announced that they are joining ranks to put an end to health care discrimination.
“This report reinforces the need to put discrimination where it belongs — in the past,” Kagen said. “If you are a citizen, you should be in. If it is in your body, it should be covered.”
Kagen joined Citizen Action leaders and State Senator Kathleen Vinehout, State Representative Jon Richards, and Remy Ceci, a health care consumer and small business owner from Pepin, to publicize the new study published by Families USA entitled “Failing Grades.”
The study finds that insurance companies are allowed to deny health coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, refuse to pay for services needed to treat common ailments, and terminate policies or deny payments when a consumer faces a rash of medical bills. Wisconsin has no authority to protect consumers from such abuses, according to the study. The full report is available at http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/publications/reports/failing-grades.html
“Our Constitution is designed to protect all citizens, even those who are ill,” Kagen said. “It’s time to establish this fundamental principle in health care, too.”
Kagen has proposed the No Discrimination Act, which he calls “the first building block in the new house of health care.” It would bring transparency to the health care marketplace by requiring all health insurance companies to openly disclose their prices, and requires them to charge every citizen within a designated region the same fee for the same service.
