Millions of Americans with pre-existing medical conditions are asking if they will lose their protection.
In the heated debates over health insurance, that have only become more intense as the election draws nearer, Mitt Romney has expressed his intention to extend continued coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions.
The presidential nominee for the Republican party has said that those switching jobs will have their coverage shielded.
Those who are changing jobs will have their health insurance coverage protected. What has yet to be seen from Romney’s plans is what will happen for the millions of others out there who have the same problem but who are in different circumstances. For example, individuals who have medical problems, but who are trying to obtain coverage for the first time.
Romney’s legacy in Massachusetts has already shown the priority he gives to coverage. Now, Americans are waiting to see what moves he will make at the federal level. From the details he has provided, it is clear that Romney’s goal is to ensure continuous coverage – which would prevent an employee who was injured on the job from losing coverage should he or she change employers and therefore coverage, at which point that injury would be deemed “pre-existing – and to make sure that Americans don’t have to pay any more than necessary for their plans.
So far, it looks as though Romney will grant the states control over their own health insurance regulations.
According to health insurance policy specialists, the plans that Romney has put forth are comparable to the protection regulations that had previously been in place in the 1996 U.S. law.
Over the last few weeks of the presidential campaign, the issue of health insurance coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions has become central in the spotlight. Romney’s promise from the very beginning of his campaign has been that he will take down the Affordable Care Act, which was implemented in 2010 by President Barack Obama in an attempt to broaden the insurance coverage of millions of Americans. Romney wants to replace this current law with his own policy.
As the governor of Massachusetts, Romney put his own law into place in 2006. That is now often seen as one of the blueprints for the healthcare law that Obama put into place on a federal level. It bans discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions, and requires residents to carry health insurance coverage. The outcome has been that 98 percent of the people in the state are now covered by a plan. However, Romney insists that this is not his intention as a candidate for president.