Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Daniel
Inouye (D-Hawaii), and Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin) have
introduced to the U.S. Senate a bill that would require group
health plans to provide benefits for prosthetic care and devices on
par with that for other medical and surgical services. The Amputee
Coalition of America (ACA) stated that the bill, the Prosthetics
Parity Act of 2008 (S 3517), “is designed to ensure that amputees
covered by employer-paid health insurance are able to access the
prosthetic care they need to lead full and independent lives.” The
ACA estimates that prosthetic parity as promoted in the September
19 bill would add only about 25 cents per month to insurance
premiums
