President Obama had health insurers squarely in his crosshairs while addressing health care reform in New Hampshire. Referring to “health insurance reform,” Obama proposed a bevy of new strictures under which insurers would operate, including removing caps on coverage and requiring coverage of preventive care.
“Under the reform we're proposing, insurance companies will be prohibited from denying coverage because of a person's medical history,” he said. “Period. They will not be able to drop your coverage if you get sick.”
Obama also called for an end to coverage limits.
“When we pass health insurance reform, insurance companies will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime,” he said. “And we will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses because no one in America should go broke because they get sick.”
Saying that spending money on the front-end saves it the long run, he also proposed requiring insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, such as mammograms and colonoscopies.
“Your health insurance should be there for you when it counts—not just when you're paying premiums, but when you actually get sick,” he said. “And it will be when we pass this plan.”
