Image via WikipediaBy Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage TodayThe number of people denied health insurance from four major insurers because of preexisting medical conditions rose by nearly half in the past several years, according to a memo released Tuesday by a congressional committee.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee investigated coverage denials due to preexisting medical conditions by the four largest for-profit insurance companies -- Aetna, Humana, United Health, and WellPoint. The investigation revealed that the four companies have denied more than 600,000 people coverage because of preexisting conditions during the three years before passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
In addition, the companies refused to pay 212,800 claims for medical treatment related to preexisting conditions.
The denials affected people seeking to buy their own insurance on the individual market.
"Internal company documents show that this increasing use of preexisting conditions to deny or limit coverage would have continued unabated if Congress had not passed health reform legislation," committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who chairs the committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, wrote in the memo.
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