Medical advocates decry insurance rules in Wash. state on waiting period for transplants
by Jim Bakken
Newly insured consumers in Washington state who purchased health plans through the online exchange might find a surprise when they comb through the fine print in their policies: They’ll have to wait 90 days from when their insurance begins before coverage for transplants will kick in. “The whole idea of creating a waiting period for someone who is dying of organ failure is the antithesis of what the Affordable Care Act is supposed to be about,” said Roslyn B. Mannon, immediate past president of the American Society of Transplantation and a transplant nephrologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Newly insured consumers in Washington state who purchased health plans through the online exchange might find a surprise when they comb through the fine print in their policies: They’ll have to wait 90 days from when their insurance begins before coverage for transplants will kick in. “The whole idea of creating a waiting period for someone who is dying of organ failure is the antithesis of what the Affordable Care Act is supposed to be about,” said Roslyn B. Mannon, immediate past president of the American Society of Transplantation and a transplant nephrologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.