Preexisting Condition Spin
Opponents of the Republican House health care bill are claiming its provisions on preexisting conditions reach further than they actually do.
- A TV ad from AARP says “insurers can charge thousands more” for preexisting conditions under the bill. They can, but that would happen only in states that obtained a waiver, and only for the relative few who buy policies on the individual marketplace and have a lapse in insurance coverage.
- Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto wrongly claimed that “over 1.2 million Nevadans with preexisting conditions … would be denied coverage or face exorbitant, unaffordable premiums.” The bill doesn’t allow insurers to deny coverage, and that figure includes Nevadans who wouldn’t be buying insurance on the individual market.
AARP’s Attack Ad
It’s not surprising that AARP, a nonprofit membership organization for those age 50 and older, is against the Republican health care bill passed by the House. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in its analysis of the legislation that lower-income older people buying coverage on the individual market would see “much larger” net premiums on average than under current law. And, the CBO said, an increase in the number of the uninsured under the bill “would be disproportionately larger among older people with lower income.”
But a TV ad
