The Health Insurance Coverage Protection Act was a U.S. bill aimed at limiting caps imposed by many health insurance plans. Caps allow an insured person only a certain amount of funding for coverage, either within a single year, or over the course of a lifetime. The bill was introduced in July, 2008, but never became law, though it marked the beginning of future efforts that would eventually prove successful.
Significance
Many serious medical conditions require thousands of dollars to treat over the course of a patient's lifetime. People with one such serious condition, hemophilia, were some of the strongest supporters of the Health Insurance Coverage Protection Act. When the bill was introduced in 2008, health care costs related to hemophilia totaled around $300,000 per year, according to Hemophilia of Georgia. With many health care plans imposing lifetime caps of $2 million or less, people were left in need of care they couldn't afford.
Health Care Act of 2010
In March, 2010, President Obama signed a new Health Care Act into law, making a number of controversial changes in American health care. Among the changes was a ban on health insurance caps. By 2014 the ban will apply to annual and lifetime caps, freeing many sufferers of critical illnesses from worry over health care costs.
State Legislation
Some states have created their own health care legislation. In May, 2010, an Act to Protect Health Care Consumers from Catastrophic Debt became law in Maine. The new law took effect in July, 2010, considerably sooner than the federal Health Care Act, making Maine a leader in health care reformation.
Tags: Coverage Protection, health care, Health Insurance, Health Insurance Coverage, Insurance Coverage
