Congress debates health insurance

Tom Walker/Washington Bureau Chief

Washington D.C., March 22 - The people who run one small business selling and fixing lawn care equipment know well what it's like to have a problem they can't fix, how to provide health insurance for the ten people, including themselves, who work there.

They say it's almost to the point that they can't.

Co-owner Tom Stokes says, "It just seems your renewal time comes very quickly, fifteen to twenty to thirty percent increases on an annual basis."

One proposed solution would make it easier for small companies to get insurance at a better rate by linking up with other small businesses through trade associations.

But the plan is coming under fire on Capitol Hill because it would also allow those plans to bypass requirements of many states, including Indiana, for certain types of health coverage.

The result, say critics, is a lot of junk policies that may cost less, but also offer very little coverage.

Dana Christensen went to Washington to tell of the coverage she and her husband thought they had through an association plan when he was dying of bone cancer. They were stunned to find out the truth. "My husband had to go in for surgery and when we were being admitted into the hospital they told us our insurance policy was so poor that we had to pay $8,000 just to be admitted into the hospital."

She was left with half a million dollars in medical bills insurance wouldn't pay.

But horror stories like that have not convinced lawmakers the idea is a bad one.

Senator Mike Dewine (R - Ohio) believes, "Some insurance is better than no insurance for people, even if it is not

a Cadillac version of insurance."

That's the way state insurance regulators in Indiana are inclined to look at it too, for now. They are not nearly as concerned about this plan as officials in other states.

Health plans in Indiana are required to cover 33 different types of procedures. Officials say treatments for obesity and autism are two that might have to be dropped under the bill in Congress.