The Amputee Coalition has announced that its priority legislation, titled Insurance Fairness for Amputees, was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 8, with bipartisan support from Representative Charlie Dent (R-PA) and Representative Rob Andrews (D-NJ). This bill, H.R. 4175, is similar to the Senate bill (S. 773) introduced in 2011 by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Tom Harkin (D-IA).
These bills would require fair access for amputees in their insurance plans and provide a standard of care for prosthetic coverage. It is modeled after the state laws that the Amputee Coalition has worked on, and would require that if an insurer covers prosthetic devices, they must cover them on terms no less favorable than other benefits within the policy. This would mean that caps and restrictions would no longer be applicable to prosthetic devices and would ensure coverage is similar to other medical and surgical benefits in their policy.
In addition, H.R. 4175 reiterates the importance of including prosthetics and custom orthotics in the essential health benefits in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The Amputee Coalition has created an action alert with instructions and sample language to ask your senators and representatives to cosponsor H.R. 4175 and S. 773.
