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Our Reporting Was Acknowledged in the Bend Bulletin

An editorial calling upon the state to help newly insured people receive needy organ transplants that appeared in The Lund Report was heralded by the Bend Bulletin yesterday
November 11, 2013

Oregon’s rules under the Affordable Care Act could leave newly insured patients without coverage for transplants over two years. The very people who the ACA was designed to help — those now without insurance — would be affected.

Although the ACA’s structure set up the problem, other states managed to avoid it, and Oregon needs urgent attention to change the rule before the new year.

Oregon patients already on transplant lists are being inactivated and new patients being deferred, according to The Lund Report. And going forward, a newly insured patient diagnosed with liver failure or some forms of leukemia might not survive the waiting period.

Under ACA rules, states had to pick a benchmark insurance plan. The two-year waiting period for previously uninsured patients was part of the PacificSource plan that Oregon chose. Other states chose different benchmarks and don’t have the waiting periods — except Washington, which has a six-month wait, according to The Oregonian.

The waiting period does not apply to patients who are now insured and are buying a new plan under the ACA. But a patient who was uninsured for two years before buying a policy effective Jan. 1 would have a two-year gap in coverage for transplants.

It’s exactly the kind of cruel twist many thought the ACA would eliminate. Oregon Insurance Commissioner Laura Cali’s office is working on the issue. Her office is taking comments from the public through Dec. 9. (Email Victor Garcia at [email protected].)

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