A state lawmaker wants to improve consumer protections for insurance coverage.
State Senator Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) says insurance companies have too much power when it comes to evaluating medical histories to determine if treatments will be covered. She says that can have a major impact when dealing with pre-existing conditions, with current laws allowing insurance providers to look back several years and using past illnesses to deny coverage.
Vinehout is proposing several bills that would scale back those powers and offer consumers more options to fight a denial of coverage.
Among the changes would be to limit medical history reviews to just one year when a person is applying for health insurance. Vinehout says that gives them a big enough window to look back at a person's medical history.
The measure would also give consumers the option to appeal a denial to an independent review board, as opposed to giving the company the final word.
The package also makes additional insurance reforms, such as allowing parents to have their adult children covered by their health insurance up to the age of 27.
Vinehout says the changes are intended to make sure people are getting what they pay for with health insurance.
AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (MP3 1:11)
