DC Council Urged to Avert Impending Health Insurance Crisis

MSDC joined other patient safety advocates, including Families USA and DC Appleseed, encouraging the DC Council to pass emergency legislation to avert a “dire situation for several thousand DC residents who currently buy their own health insurance.”

With the passage of the “Budget Support Act of 2006,” the DC Council relieved CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield of its open enrollment obligations and took money that CareFirst previously devoted to open enrollment to fund Healthy DC coverage for the low-income uninsured – essentially helping one group and harming another. The result: DC residents diagnosed with chronic and progressive illnesses, including diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS and others, may have nowhere to go to purchase health insurance.

Believing the action was inadvertent on the part of the Council, MSDC and the other groups urge the Council to pass legislation that would require CareFirst to continue to accept open enrollment until another solution is found and require all District insurers to accept DC residents, regardless of health status, and cap the premiums that insurers are allowed to charge, among other provisions.