Poll Shows Consumers Believe Health Insurance Companies Seek to Increase Profits at the Expense of Nation’s Most Chronically Ill

Below, you can find a very interesting article regarding Insurers and Patients:

88% of Voters Will Not Support Legislators Who Side with Insurers Over Sickest Patients

ROCKVILLE, Md. (June 22, 2018) — A new national poll released today by the American Kidney Fund (AKF) found that 91 percent of Americans believe insurance companies should not be allowed to deny coverage for people with chronic diseases whose premiums are paid by charitable organizations. The poll of 1,110 adults, which includes a representative sample of California residents, was conducted by YouGov for AKF, in response to legislation proposed in California. The legislation, SB 1156, was introduced by the insurance lobby through Sen. Connie Leyva to prevent dialysis patients with end-stage renal disease (ERSD) from using charitable assistance to pay for their insurance premiums.

“Consumers nationally, and in California, overwhelmingly reject the efforts by the billion-dollar health insurers, their lobbyists and their legislative patrons to deny charitable assistance that pays patients’ health insurance premiums,” said LaVarne A. Burton, president and CEO of the American Kidney Fund. “If SB 1156 in its current form is enacted, each patient will face significant obstacles in getting approval to use charitable assistance in paying their insurance premiums. This means patients will face missed or delayed lifesaving treatments, crushing medical costs and uncertainty about future care.”

Known as “charitable premium assistance,” the federally approved practice of patients applying for and receiving help from charities to pay insurance premiums has long been accepted. Yet recent efforts by insurers to undermine the practice have left many of the nation’s sickest patients worried about their insurance coverage. In California more than 3,800 dialysis and kidney transplant patients—who overwhelmingly are unable to work because of their illness—rely on help from AKF to afford the cost of their health insurance premiums.

To read the entire article, please click here to be redirected to the original article source, American Kidney Funds.