NPAF's message to White House Summit participants: Policy agreement must triumph over partisan politics

The National Patient Advocate Foundation (NPAF) -- the sister organization to the Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF) -- a direct patient services organization that assists patients throughout the country – delivered a message to all White House Summit participants that policy agreement must triumph over partisan politics during the bipartisan health care reform meeting.  

"Today is a historic day in the lives of patients in America as the hope and promise that the issues denying them access to healthcare today will be resolved for them and future generations. It is a day of hope that policy agreement will triumph over partisan politics," said Nancy Davenport-Ennis, CEO & Founder, NPAF. "We are heartened by the continued collaborative process that pushes forward, and we share our lawmakers' hope for achieving the historic goal of meaningful and comprehensive health reform in the near future."

While NPAF offered sincere thanks to Members of Congress for their tireless work and leadership on health care reform, they acknowledged the work goes on.  The letters sent to all participants urged the elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions and waiting periods for all individuals in every health insurance market, the elimination of annual, monthly and lifetime caps on coverage, and capping out-of-pocket expenses so that health insurance coverage is affordable for patients. NPAF enclosed three patient cases from each Member's state with their letter, citing the specific insurance coverage issues solved by PAF in order to assure the patient's continued access to healthcare.

The letter commends Congress for addressing the barrier that annual and lifetime limits present for patients, but urges that the final health care reform bill prohibit all limits on dollar value, services or specific diseases based on time periods.  While such limits may control costs to the health plan, they do not address or support the fundamental reason consumers purchase health insurance.

Finally, NPAF strongly supports a yearly cap on out-of-pocket spending and cited a recent study by The American Journal of Medicine which found that 62% of all bankruptcies are related to sickness.  Of those, 75% reported having medical insurance.