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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 14, 2012 10:32 AM |
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| From: | Representative Dan Truitt |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Infant & Children’s Health Initiative Act (Previous HB 2662) |
| Imagine that YOUR child is allergic to every food on the planet except cantaloupe. Your doctor prescribes a special formula to supplement your child’s diet, but, it costs $100.00 per DAY. Your insurance company refuses to cover it because your child COULD just eat cantaloupe. In the near future, I will re-introduce legislation that would require health insurance policies sold or renewed in Pennsylvania to include coverage for amino-acid-based elemental formulas that are medically necessary to treat a disease or disorder. The coverage would be required regardless of the method of delivery. Children in this Commonwealth are born every year with gastrointestinal disorders such as Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EE) and severe food protein allergies that make it so that they cannot consume normal foods. Instead, they can only consume “elemental formulas” which are very expensive, costing as much as $100.00 per day. These formulas are often delivered through permanently-installed feeding tubes. In some cases, they can be consumed orally. Having this condition is unimaginable to many of us who love food or love to eat. However, even more unimaginable is the fact that insurance companies would not cover the cost of the “elemental formulas” that affected children need to survive. Some policies do cover the formulas, but, only for certain delivery methods and/or only when the child is unable to eat anything else. If it is determined that there is anything else that the child can eat, the coverage ends. This is problematic because children with these disorders are very gradually (over a period of years) introduced to different kinds of foods in an attempt to find anything that they can eat such as a specific fruit or vegetable that will not cause an adverse reaction. When such a food is found, the child still needs the elemental formula, but, the insurance company may stop covering it. The attached legislation, HB 2662 of last Session, is intended to tighten insurance requirements associated with these disorders so that affected families will not face financial ruin because of loopholes in their health insurance policies. Previous co-sponsor include: TRUITT, BOBACK, DAVIS, GEORGE, MULLERY, MURT, SAYLOR, YOUNGBLOOD and BRADFORD |
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| View Attachment | ||
Introduced as HB49