Delay Vote on Health Act

Whenever Congress puts a high-sounding name on a peace of legislation, it should send up a red flag for every American.

Such should be the case with the so-called Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act.

The goal is noble — to allow small businesses and associations to merge their multi-state membership into a single group for the purposes of shopping for health insurance, with the ultimate aim of more affordable health insurance coverage for everyone, including the currently uninsured.

But lurking within the bill are provisions that opponents claim could easily lead to reduced benefits for everyone, the disappearance of state-mandated benefits for such conditions as diabetes and mental illness, higher costs for seniors and the chronically ill, and a loss of women's health care benefits including mammograms and maternity care.

The problem rests in the nature of existing coverage mandates, which are set for the most part state-by-state. A plan that crosses state lines, however, needs some sort of uniformity in mandated coverage.

Unfortunately, HIMMAA takes a minimalist approach to this question in the name of affordability.

While the act calls for negotiations with states to establish benefits, what it allows at a certain point is for insurers to ignore a state's mandate if the particular benefit isn't mandated in at least 45 states.

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