http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h1076/show is one site encouraging people to write their Congressmen regarding an amendment to HIPAA that will "correct" the current law that allows group health plans and health insurers covered by ERISA to deny benefits or coverage for treatment of injuries resulting from participation in a legal mode of transportation or recreational activity. What? Oh yeah, motorcycles, snowboards, all that stuff.
I am against the passage of House bill 1076 and Senate bill 616 because, non-coverage of people who are at a greater statistical risk of needing medical services for WHATEVER reason has been the trend in insurance non-coverage, why should motorcyclists get special treatment?
This is not a mean-spirited argument, because the goal is to get people to DO SOMETHING in terms of using our common goal of insurance coverage that will cover medical treatment when necessary. Carving out exclusions, for the young, the healthy, the idle is all part of the goal of reducing insurance company coverage of RISK by eliminating those likeliest to need such coverage. If insurers don't cover risk they are not insuring...therefore, as each group realizes that they too are excluded, perhaps we'll stop fighting amongst ourselves for better "rates" based on the unlikelihood that we'll need insurance coverage and start demanding insurance coverage for medical services or demand that a new product that enables us to obtain needed medical care REGARDLESS of our risk group category be offered by our society.
Therefore, we should all now lock arms with our fellow bad insurance risks: the snowboarders, the skiiers, the motorcyclists, the elderly, the sick, those who smoke or drink or have mental illness or are homosexual....we cannot support special legislation for one group, we all require our insurance products to cover the risk of our need for medical services or we don't need insurance. Using the wisdom we've collected so far, just for fun, predict what the AMA's position is on the issue, assuming as we have that they desire payment and that insurance is their current best means of assuring some level of payment: Yup, they support the bills.
