Whoops! ObamaCare doesn't cover pre-existing conditions after all, until 2014

By: David Freddoso
Online Opinion Editor
03/24/10 8:28 AM PDT

ObamaCare will not protect children with pre-existing health conditions from being denied health coverage -- not until 2014. This despite endless talking points and promises to the contrary, the Associated Press reports:

Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday...

Full protection for children would not come until 2014, said Kate Cyrul, a spokeswoman for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, another panel that authored the legislation. That's the same year when insurance companies could no longer deny coverage to any person on account of health problems.

Obama's public statements have conveyed the impression that the new protections for kids were more sweeping and straightforward.

He hasn't just "conveyed the impression." He's said it outright, repeatedly. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was saying it on television as recently as three hours ago. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, while criticizing ObamaCare, was saying this morning that he's still glad it would allow his diabetic son to get insurance if he lost his job.

Sorry, but not so fast.

This, as Vice President Biden might say, is a big f***ing deal. It means that in their rush to pass the Senate version of ObamaCare on Christmas Eve, Democrats disarmed one of their main talking points in defense of the legislation for the rest of this year.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Whoops-ObamaCare-doesnt-cover-pre-existing-conditions-after-all-89007962.html#ixzz0j856KDkf