Congress will consider whether to force health insurers to cover all preexisting and chronic illnesses.

John "Jay" Rockefeller

Echoing a plank of President Barack Obama‘s campaign platform, Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) plan to introduce the Preexisting Condition Patient Protection Act, which they say would “end insurance discrimination” against the 133 million American’s living with chronic illness.

“Insurance companies should no longer be allowed to reap profits by denying care to sick Americans,” Rockefeller said in a statement. “We as a nation can no longer stand by and continue to allow this practice to occur. These medical services are not optional, and most times, they are not affordable without insurance.”

Rockefeller said the health care system is “broken” and necessitates the need to eliminate the preexisting condition exclusions in all insurance markets.

“It is wrong and impractical to commit ourselves to health care reform without addressing the faulty and ill-advised preexisting condition exclusion,” Courtney said in a statement.

He added that “this discriminatory practice prevents millions of hardworking Americans from changing or finding new jobs and in this economy that is just plain wrong.”

The news was met with immediate approval from the National Patient Advocate Foundation.

“Because of gaps in current law, many Americans suffering from chronic, disabling and life-threatening conditions either have no health insurance coverage or are continuously at risk of losing the coverage they have,” Nancy Davenport-Ennis, president and CEO of NPAF, said in a statement.

The legislation would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit a report to Congress on the extent of adverse selection that occurs because insurers can no longer exclude patients with preexisting conditions. This report must include data from private insurers on the characteristics of their insured population. This new reporting requirement would provide transparency on the true mix of patients and patient claims experience among private insurers, according to the senators proposing the law.

The bill would also require the Government Accountability Office to submit a report to Congress addressing the impact of this legislation on reducing the number of uninsured and underinsured, as well as its effect on the affordability of health insurance coverage, they said.

The senators said the Preexisting Condition Patient Protection Act of 2009 has been endorsed by 22 organizations, including the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association; American Heart Association/American Stroke Association; Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc.; Association of Community Cancer Centers; Breast Cancer Network of Strength; Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy; Congenital Heart; Information Network; Dermatology Nurses’ Association; First Focus; International Myeloma Foundation; Lung Cancer Alliance; Lupus Foundation of America; Mended Little Hearts; National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners; National Patient Advocate Foundation; Oncology Nursing Society; Ovarian Cancer National Alliance; Pediatric Stroke Network, Inc.; Sarcoma Foundation of America; Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association; The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society; and The Wellness Community.