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Insurance Commissioner: Organ Transplant Waiting Period May be “Discriminatory”

The Oregon Insurance Division will be soliciting public input on the moratorium until Dec. 9.
October 25, 2013

 

The Oregon Insurance Division is requesting public comment on a proposed two-year waiting period on organ transplants currently included in Cover Oregon’s base-benchmark plan.

Oregon Insurance Commissioner Laura Cali said her office was reconsidering the waiting period because of concerns that it might “violate the non-discrimination requirement of the Affordable Care Act.”

When asked why the Insurance Division was opening the moratorium to public comment instead of reworking it directly, Cali said that she wanted any changes to “be part of Cover Oregon’s rule-making process.”

An earlier story in The Lund Report shed light on the proposed waiting period, which would be mandatory for those without at least two years of creditable insurance coverage.

The Insurance Division is requesting public opinion on this moratorium until Dec. 9, and a decision is expected before Cover Oregon’s Jan. 1 kick-off date.

Comments should be directed to Program Support Director Victor Garcia at [email protected].

The Affordable Care Act says that a plan doesn’t need to provide essential health benefits “if its benefit design, or the implementation of its benefit design, discriminates based on an individual’s age, expected length of life, present or predicted disability, degree of medical dependency, quality of life, or other health conditions.”

Miles Bryan can be reached at [email protected].

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