Health Care Group Calls for Better Consumer Protections

June 12, 2008— -- Kathleen Watson of Lake City, Fla., has been on a mission to find affordable individual health care since her husband's work-based insurance plan ran out.

But during her search, Watson discovered she lives with a medical condition that has considerably hampered her efforts to find coverage. With precursor symptoms to leukemia, Watson said she was been red-flagged by insurers for not initially informing them about her condition. Now she cannot find a health insurance company to cover her that she can afford. And with a pre-existing condition, most plans won't even take her.

"I'm very frustrated," Watson said. "We've lost our savings, our 401k, I've lost my business."

"Most people who do have leukemia lymphoma get treatment right away," she said. "I haven't gotten any treatment because I don't have insurance."

A study released today by health care consumer group, Families USA, reveal that Watson is not the only one. In a 50-state survey, Families USA found that states do not have adequate laws to protect individual health care consumers — people who are self-employed or ineligible for group health insurance coverage. According to Families USA, about 27 million people nationwide had individual policies in 2006. This is the first nationwide survey that examines how states oversee individual health coverage.

The Families USA study comes on the heels of a report released earlier this week by the Commonwealth Fund that found that the number of people who are "underinsured," or without adequate health insurance to cover their medical expenses, rose dramatically in recent years from 16 million people in 2003 to 25 million in 2007. The Commonwealth Fund report found that 42 percent of adults between the ages of 19 and 64 either don't have enough health insurance or don't have any at all.

Watson's home state of Florida is on the list released today by Families USA of states that do not do well when it comes to ensuring consumer protections. Others at the bottom of the list include Alabama, Delaware and Nebraska. States like New York and Maine, on the other hand, do a better job of ensuring consumer protections when it comes to individual health insurance, according to Families USA.