• Most people who change jobs will be able to get insurance right away, even for a preexisting medical problem.
• Insurance companies won't be able to cancel coverage for people who get sick but keep paying their premiums.
• Medical Savings Accounts, which allow workers to save tax-free money for medical expenses, will be piloted.
• Health insurance for self-employed individuals will be 80% tax-deductible by the year 2006.

All the following comments (except those from ADA and JDF) are extracted from webpages which have expanded content if you hyperlink on the title of each section; ADA's and JDF's comments were sent to us by e-mail, and are not on their websites.

---

American Diabetes Association comments:

---

"Here is the text of a story in the ‘Public Policy Briefs' Section of our Diabetes Advocate newsletter:

Kennedy-Kassebaum Bill

"It is possible that Congress will enact modest health care reform before the 1996 Congressional and Presidential elections. Reform legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA).

"In the House, several bills have been crafted. Elements of each are expected to be included in a bill being promoted by the GOP leadership. The final House bill is likely to be broader and more controversial than the Kassebaum legislation.

"The Kassebaum legislation prohibits insurance carriers from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition and denying the sale of an individual insurance policy to a person recently covered through a group plan. It also generally requires insurers to offer group health plans to all employers in markets in which they already sell group plans. The bill also prohibits insurers who offer a group plan to an employer from excluding any of its employees or their dependents from the plan because of poor health. The American Diabetes Association strongly supports the Kassebaum/Kennedy legislation. While far from comprehensive reform, ending the pre-existing condition exclusion, ensuring portability and providing small firms with access to the health insurance market regardless of the health of their employees are among the Association's primary legislative goals.

"Let me know if there is anything else I can do. Feel free to E-mail any suggestions for postings to me especially regarding government relations issues. Thanks."

Beth Sterling
E-mail: BethADA@aol.com

"My name is Eric Schutt and I am the Assistant Director of Government Relations for JDF. I am responding to your question of S. 1028. "JDF supports the following health care insurance reform provisions contained in both the Health Coverage Availability and Affordability Act of 1996, H.R. 3103, and the Kennedy Kassebaum Health Insurance Act of 1995, S1028:"

• limitations on exclusions for pre-existing conditions
• Guarantees availability of health coverage for individuals
• Guarantees renewability of health coverage to employers and individuals
• Terminates job-lock by making health coverage portable
• Assures maintenance of health coverage for individuals leaving group health coverage.

"If you have any other questions concerning legislation please feel free to contact me directly at Eschutt@jdfcure.com or by phone at 1-800-JDF-1VOTE."

S.1028, sponsored by Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), received a strong bipartisan boost during the President's State-of-the-Union speech. The bill is scheduled on the Senate floor between April 15 and May 3, 1996. The House, Ways and Means Committee, is considering moderate health insurance reform legislation as well. The key issues being addressed include some of the MS Society's top priorities:

• Elimination of the pre-existing condition exclusion for many - Prohibits insurers and employers from denying limited coverage under a group health plan for more than 12 months for a medical condition diagnosed or treated during the previous 6 months.
• Portability - Requires insurers to cover anyone moving from a group health plan to an individual plan. Portability will help to eliminate job-lock and promote career development, or becoming self employed.
• Availability - Prohibits group plans from denying coverage to employers or excluding any employees based on health status. Anyone covered under a group plan for 12 months would be guaranteed access to an individual policy if they lost group coverage.
• Policies for people with disabilities - The bill expands guarantees of continued coverage to people who become disabled and to family members of people with disabilities.

The Kennedy/Kassenbaum bill (S.1028) is definitely coming up for a vote sometime between April 15 and May 3rd, with the most likely date being April 18. This bill will eliminate the pre-existing conditions that most insurances place on new enrollees, as well as the life-time cap to $10 million.

As I'm sure all of you know, the issues related to insurance often are worrisome for persons with a disease. This bill would eliminate a lot of concerns for a great many patients and their families.

So, once again, the National Gaucher Foundation is urging you to contact your United States Senators and Congressional Representatvies urging them to vote in favor of S. 1028.

This is our best hope of overcoming these discriminatory practices by insurance companies. And it is probably our only hope. If this bill does not pass now, there will probably never be another like it drafted again. Thus, a great many Gaucher patients and their familes could risk losing their health insurance or not have the ability to change jobs for fear of losing benefits for one year.

Just last week I had a call from a mother whose 6 year old was just diagnosed with Gaucher Disease. This child is definitely in need of therapy - there is no question. The mother asked me what would happen to their health insurance if she begins the child's therapy now. It was good to say that she would be saving her child's life, but it broke my heart to let her know the cost of the therapy. And if there is a lifetime cap on their health insurance, the family could be confronted with some painful choices in the years ahead.

Please pick up the phone and call - do it for ALL patients and their familes out there. We're lucky that a treatment exists and we have to make sure that ALL who desire it have access to it.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Christina L. Thomas
Director of Programs
National Gaucher Foundation
1-800-925-8885 (Extension 517; Office hours: 9am to 5pm, Eastern Standard Time)

November 30, 1995 - On November 8, Senator Jeffords (R-VT) held a press conference stating, he will offer an amendment to the Kassebaum Kennedy health insurance reform (S. 1028) to prohibit lifetime caps. Senator Kassebaum has sent a "Dear Colleague's letter to all Republican senators asking that S. 1028 be passed before the end of the year.

Last week, the Benefits Association sent out a LEGISLATIVE ACTION report to all members of congress opposing lifetime caps. A number of business groups have stanted a grassroots letter writing campaign to Senate members asking that they oppose the Jeffords amendment. WE MUST RESPOND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. PLEASE ENCOURAGE YOUR MEMBERS TO CALL (OR WRITE) TO THEIR SENATORS IN SUPPORT OF THE JEFFORDS AMENDMENT TO PROHIBIT LIFETIME CAPS.

You can reach us at:
Parent Connection
1020 Riverwood Court
Conroe, Texas 77304
(409) 525-2747
Or by e-mail at: parent@neosoft.com

Sunday, March 3, 1996

Congress prepares to return to health care debate Kassebaum joining forces with Kennedy

Now Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum, R-Kan., is joining forces with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., to push for reform in health insurance. They learned from President Clinton's failure to pass comprehensive health reform in 1994 that any bill so sweeping in scope draws attacks from too many special interests and makes the public too nervous. But they also know that access to health insurance is still as big an issue with voters as it was in 1992 when Clinton made it a focal point of his campaign. Even opponents of Kassebaum and Kennedy's bill concede that health care is one of the top three issues in the minds of voters. Proponents are pointing to the middle class angst driving Patrick Buchanan's insurgency in the Republican primaries as proof.

"We are beginning to understand the depth of the anxiety in the American public," said Rep. Marge Roukema, R-N.J., who is supporting the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill in the House. "And part of their anxiety about job insecurity is their fear of losing health insurance." Kassebaum said they have carefully crafted a bill that is narrow enough to get through Congress without drawing too much opposition but not so narrow as to be meaningless. She conceded it is only a first step in health care reform but said she would accept no amendments to expand its scope. The bill would restrict health insurance plans from denying health coverage to people because of pre-existing medical conditions, and it guarantees that employers and individuals will be able to renew their insurance regardless of their health record. This will end "job lock" that keeps employees from changing jobs or starting their own companies because they fear losing their insurance. Now, workers who are laid off or who take early retirement are able to keep their company health insurance for 18 months. After that many find they cannot get insurance at any price because of their age or medical record. This bill guarantees that they will be able to buy a health insurance policy, and its supporters say it will help insure 25 million people a year.

How much would policy cost? But it doesn't guarantee what they will have to pay for that policy, and therein lies the argument that could still kill this legislation.

Leading the opposition is the Health Insurance Association of America, a powerful trade organization of insurance companies that helped sink Clinton's proposal in 1994 by creating the "Harry and Louise" television ads. The association insists that if this bill became law, the amount of money insurance companies would have to charge for individual health policies would jump by as much as 30 percent.

BY GIL KLEIN
Media General News Service

Health Insurance--Two major nonpartisan studies, from both the American Academy of Actuaries and the Congressional Research Service, yesterday predicted that the most controversial provision of the embattled Kassebaum-Kennedy health insurance bill would not cause sharp premium increases in individual, non-group policies that people buy directly from insurers. Sen. Kassebaum said the legislation would result in premium increases in the individual market of less than 1% in the first year and no more than 3% overall. The projections by the two groups could boost prospects for the measure, which is scheduled to reach the Senate floor in late April or early May.

WASHINGTON REPORT
February 21, 1996
United we Stand America, Inc.
Joan Vinson, Editor

PRESS BRIEFING
BY MIKE MCCURRY

QUESTION: Mike, what's the White House's strategy in getting the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill voted on before the 15th of April?

MR. MCCURRY: Well, our strategy is to continue to press the case for a very important piece of legislation. It will make it easier for Americans to retain access to health insurance when they change jobs, especially because of the portability provisions and the dealing with preexisting conditions; making sure that we don't change the structure of employer-provided health insurance in America at a time when we need to think about how to expand coverage rather than diminish coverage.

The President pressed this very forcefully in the State of the Union address. That clearly had an impact because, for whatever reason, the mysterious holds that were placed on this legislation in the Senate seemed to evaporate. And it's now quite clear that there's more than a majority of senators in support of the legislation. We certainly hope the legislation will be taken up as soon as possible. If it's April, it's April, but passage of that would represent a very important step forward in the effort to reform the health insurance sector, consistent with what the President told the Speaker and the Majority Leader back in December of 1994, that we needed to move ahead on an incremental reform of the health care sector.

Congress is considering a number of bills which would make incremental health insurance reforms. Currently, the Health Insurance Reform Act of 1995 (S 1028) has attracted the most legislative attention.

Sponsored by Senators Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), the bill primarily focuses on portability and limits preexisting condition exclusions under both insured and self-funded plans. For example, the bill would require that a new health plan credit previous group coverage toward the plan's preexisting condition exclusion period. The maximum preexisting condition exclusion period would be 12 months (or 18 months for late enrollees).

Other provisions include:

• Individuals who were covered under a group plan for 18 months who lost coverage would be eligible for individual coverage. The coverage would be guaranteed renewable.
• COBRA coverage would be expanded to 29 months for persons who become disabled during the first 18 months of COBRA coverage. Current law provides that the individuals must be disabled at the time of the qualifying event in order to qualify for 29 months of coverage.
• States could enact laws that provide greater protection than ERISA, provided the state laws were not in direct conflict with ERISA. Obviously, this would be a significant narrowing of ERISA preemption.

2-7-95

UNITED STATE CONGRESS
Senate Committee Memberships
104th Congress
1995-96

LABOR AND HUMAN RESOURCES

SD-428, Dirksen Building, Washington, D.C. 20510;
(202) 224-5375

Nancy Kassebaum (KS), Chmn.
Edward M. Kennedy (MA)
James Jeffords (VT)
Claiborne Pell (RI)
Dan Coats (IN)
Christopher Dodd (CT)
Judd Gregg (NH)
Paul Simon (IL)
Bill Frist (TN)
Tom Harkin (IA)
Michael DeWine (OH)
Barbara Mikulski (MD)
John Ashcroft (MO)
Paul Wellstone (MN)
Spencer Abraham (MI)
Slade Gorton (WA)