Sebelius gets in on the intimidation game

Looks like the entire White House has gone to war with American business over health care reform. Last week, the insurance industry pointed out that the ObamaCare bill didn't require them to cover children. Alarms were quickly sounded across Pennsylvania Avenue and Capitol Hill.

Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday.

However, if a child is accepted for coverage, or is already covered, the insurer cannot exclude payment for treating a particular illness, as sometimes happens now.

That an error like this could slip through simply proves that no Democrat actually bothered to read the bill before it passed, including Obama himself. Democrats attacked Republicans constantly by drawing the cloak of The Children around them. The implication was that conservatives who opposed ObamaCare for any reason were opposing children's health. It took the insurance companies to point out that they completely forgot to extend the ban on preexisting conditions to children without health care.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius was not pleased...with the insurance companies for embarrassing her. She fired off a threatening letter to Karen Ignagni, head of the insurers' trade association.

Unfortunately recent media accounts indicate that some insurance companies may be seeking to avoid or ignore a provision in the new law that prohibits insurance companies from excluding children with pre-existing conditions from coverage.

Health insurance reform is designed to prevent any child from being denied coverage because he or she has a pre-existing condition. Leaders in Congress have reaffirmed this in recent days in the attached statement.

Sebelius indicated she would provide additional regulations in the coming weeks to clarify that all children with pre-existing conditions must be covered.

But the insurance companies weren't planning on further denying coverage. If they wanted to, they wouldn't have announced the loophole to the entire American press. They were merely seeking clarification on a new regulation. Sebelius can beat up the insurers all she wants, but she might try actually reading the bill next time.