Saturday, January 29, 2011

Look Very Closely...

...and you'll see my Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and Senator Claire McCaskill sitting with Kansas Senator Jerry Moran and Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine at the State of the Union Address. Oh! How I wish I could have been there. Here's what I would have said:

"Congressman Cleaver - did you know that Senator Moran was a co-sponsor of HR 2575*, the Prosthetic and Custom Orthotic Parity Act of 2009 that will provide parity under group health plans and group health insurance coverage in the provision of benefits for prosthetic devices and... Oh my goodness! Look who else is here! It's Senators Snowe and McCaskill! Senator McCaskill, did you know that Senator Snowe introduced S. 3223? ** In the spirit of bi-partisanship, wouldn't it be wonderful if you, Claire and you, Emanuel, demonstrated your support for these bills?"

Ah yes, in a perfect world... OK, yes, it's a very tiny picture but it's real. In fact in Representative Cleaver' confirmed it in his weekly newsletter, "EC from DC."


*5/21/2009--Introduced.Prosthetic and Custom Orthotic Parity Act of 2009 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to require a group health plan that provides medical and surgical benefits as well as benefits for prosthetic devices and components and orthotic devices to offer such prosthetic and orthotic coverage in the same manner as applicable to medical and surgical benefits. Prohibits separate financial requirements or more restrictive treatment limitations.


**4/19/2010--Introduced.Prosthetics and Custom Orthotics Parity Act of 2010 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Public Health Service Act to require a group health plan that provides medical and surgical benefits and also provides benefits for prosthetics and custom orthotics to offer such prosthetics and custom orthotics in the same manner as applicable to medical and surgical benefits. Prohibits separate financial requirements or more restrictive treatment limitations.