Perhaps the most alarming I’ve seen comes from Florida, where the AIDS Institute and National Health Law Program accuse four insurers of discriminating against customers and potential customers who are HIV-positive. According to an official complaint, filed with the Department of Health and Human Services, the insurers have structured their drug formularies in ways that make key HIV drugs much more expensive.
It could be coincidence, naturally, but the groups think it’s a deliberate effort to scare away customers that would run up high medical bills. It’s precisely the sort of trick that insurers have played for generations. And while the Affordable Care Act’s regulations are supposed to stop such practices, some insurers have undoubtedly found ways to circumvent and undermine the new rules.
Does this mean Obamacare is a bad deal for people with HIV? Of course not. Before the law, people with pre-existing conditions frequently had even worse coverage—or no insurance at all. But given the anecdotes and history of private insurance in America, it’s clear that state and federal officials need to be regulating the plans aggressively. In some places, I’m not sure they are.
So we're pretty much all in agreement on three things: 1) The ACA still has problems and loopholes that are being exploited. 2) They need to be fixed. 3) It will never happen as long as Republicans are in charge of either or both halves of Congress.
The root cause of the issue is of course, part 3 there. That's what we have to do something about in November. Remember, Republicans want to take us back to an era where insurance companies can discriminate against HIV-positive people and MS sufferers and breast cancer survivors and say "we won't cover you." And they have zero solutions to that problem, literally, nothing.
So why would we send them back to Congress?
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