|
|
75-year-old
Thomas Duncan* never expected that he would lose his health insurance.
He had an individual policy with a major insurance provider that he had
held for over 15 years. It wasn’t until just a few months after his
emergency by-pass heart surgery that he received a letter in the mail
from his insurance company informing him that his coverage was being
terminated due to a missed premium. Neither Thomas nor his daughter, who
was paying his bills during his prolonged hospitalization, ever received
a notice from his health insurance company informing him that his
premium was due or that he had missed a payment. Even despite Thomas’s
immediate attempts to resolve the situation, he found himself in a
time-consuming, uphill battle to navigate the channels necessary to
reinstate his health care coverage. While some individuals have success
in fighting their insurance companies over internal errors, Thomas did
not. What he found was there was no process for him to pursue, and he
was unable to regain coverage with the company he had done business with
for so many years.
This is a frightening situation for any individual who relies on health
insurance to pay for medical care. There are claims coming from across
the United States that some health insurance companies are terminating
insurance coverage – often times for senior citizens or individuals with
chronic illness – without any notification or apparent reason. Sometimes
it is senior citizens, like Thomas Duncan, who make their payments on
time and find that an error within the health insurance company’s system
(or the postal system) caused the cancellation. Senior citizens who face
emergency situations that temporarily prevent them from taking care of
their own bills often come out of the hospital only to find that their
health insurance has been cancelled because of a late payment. Sometimes
the insurance company claims the payment wasn’t received on time, and
therefore cancelled, when the individual’s personal records show a check
was sent on time. Whether it is one of a myriad of reasons that causes
the payment to not be received on time or an internal error that causes
cancellation, the lack of notification of cancellation creates great
anxiety, unrest, and financial hardship. And for those individuals with
chronic illness, it can be a dangerous and life-threatening situation.
Some individuals have complained that health insurance companies are
using a late payment, no matter what the reason, as an opportunity to
drop coverage for customers who may not be best for revenue. Elderly
customers and customers with chronic illness use their insurance much
more than their younger or healthier counterparts, and the difference
between what they pay in premiums to the cost of medical services they
require is not always to the insurance company’s financial benefit.
As consumers of health insurance, our nation’s most vulnerable citizens
deserve to be protected so they do not fall prey to the sudden
cancellation of an insurance policy that oftentimes results out of
situations beyond their control. In order to address this issue and to
help protect our elderly and chronically ill citizens, I have introduced
the Health Care Consumer Protection (HCCP) Act, a bipartisan bill that
provides individuals the right to reinstate their health insurance
coverage that may have been terminated for a number of reasons.
Specifically, HCCP requires that if an insurance company cancels an
individual’s coverage under a group plan because they failed to pay
their premiums, the insurance company must provide the following
information in writing to both the administrator of the plan and the
individual covered within 14 days of cancellation:
• Written notice that the coverage has been cancelled;
• The reason for cancellation; and
• Notice that the original terms of coverage may be reinstated if the
individual pays the past due premium.
This simple step of requiring written notification of termination and
giving consumers the right to reinstate their health insurance coverage
if it is cancelled protects consumers from losing access to health care
because of situations that may be out of their control. When our health,
or the health of our parents, depends on the continuation of health
insurance coverage, individuals deserve to have the peace of mind that
they will continue to have access to care when it matters the most.
I welcome your comments and suggestions on this legislation and any
first-hand information or experiences you have to share with me about a
similar situation you or a loved one has encountered with the loss or
near-loss of health insurance coverage. You can email me by visiting my
Web site, or write to me at any one of my office locations.
* The name has been changed for the purposes of this article to
protect the privacy of the individual.
4 Steps to Reduce Your Home Energy Intake
As
summer quickly approaches and gas prices are rapidly climbing, many
families begin considering ways to save on energy intake in their homes.
Even simple steps, such as turning off the lights when you leave a room,
can save you and your family hundreds of dollars a year in energy costs.
The Department of Energy provides a list of steps to be more energy
efficient.
Step #1: Locate Air Leaks:
Check for indoor air leaks, such as gaps along the baseboard or edge of
the flooring and at junctures of the walls and ceiling. Check to see if
air can flow through the following places: electrical outlets, switch
plates, window frames, baseboards, weather stripping around doors,
fireplace dampers, attic hatches, wall- or window-mounted air
conditioners. The potential energy savings from reducing drafts in a
home may range from 5% to 30% per year, and the home is generally much
more comfortable afterward.
Follow this link for more information on replacing your windows,
doors, and skylights.
Step #2: Check your Insulation:
Heat loss through the ceiling and walls in your home could be very great
if the insulation levels are less than the recommended minimum. When
your house was built, the builder likely installed the amount of
insulation recommended at that time. Given today's energy prices, the
level of insulation might be inadequate, especially if you have an older
home.
Follow this link for more information on insulating your home
properly.
Step #3: Inspect Heating and Cooling Equipment:
Your heating and cooling equipment should be inspected annually, or as
recommended by the manufacturer. If you have a forced-air furnace, check
your filters and replace them as needed. Generally, you should change
filters about once every month, especially during periods of high usage.
Have a professional check and clean your equipment once a year. If the
unit is more than 15 years old, you should consider replacing your
system with one of the newer, energy-efficient units.
Follow this link for more information on your heating and cooling
equipment.
Follow this link for more information on replacing your heating and
cooling equipment.
Step #4: Change Your Home’s Lighting
Energy for lighting accounts for about 10% of your electric bill.
Examine the wattage size of the light bulbs in your house. You may have
100-watt (or larger) bulbs where 60 or 75 watts would do. You should
also consider compact fluorescent lamps for areas where lights are on
for hours at a time. Your electric utility may offer rebates or other
incentives for purchasing energy-efficient lamps.
Follow this link for more information on reducing lighting in your
home.
Follow this link for more information on energy efficient lighting.
Evaluate your home energy costs by
using the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Home Energy Audit tool.
Find out how
much money and pollution you can save by taking the Home Energy Checkup.
Check out more resources on becoming more energy efficient:
▪ The Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy Network (EREN)
www.eere.energy.gov/
▪ The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR
Phone: 888/STAR-YES
Web site: www.energystar.gov
▪ The
Alliance to Save Energy
Phone: 202/857-0666
Web site: www.ase.org |