I'm noticing a pattern here:
http://www.wvgazette.com/...
In West Virginia, as in every other state, health insurance companies cannot deny coverage, or charge more for it, because of pre-existing medical conditions.
The Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, is responsible for that change. Along with expanding coverage, banning discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions, was the primary goal of the law.
It’s a pretty popular change. Past polling has shown widespread support for banning discrimination against pre-existing conditions.
And, as of today, both major candidates for U.S. Senate in West Virginia are running ads touting their support for the provision, while simultaneously distancing themselves from the law (and the unpopular president) that put it into effect.
In Secretary of State Natalie Tennant’s new ad she tells the story, which she often does on the campaign trail, of how her daughter was born with a heart condition and needed surgery.
“The insurance company called her a pre-existing condition,” Tennant says in an ad that begins airing today. “I know health care reform wasn’t done right, there’s a lot I’ll do to make it better for West Virginia. But I won’t ever go back to the days of letting insurance companies deny coverage to our children.”
Tennant, a Democrat, is generally supportive of the Affordable Care Act, but, in a state where the president’s job approval is 25 percent, she has consistently declined to say how she would have voted on the law had she been in Congress when it was passed.
“Secretary Tennant didn’t have the opportunity to debate the bill or offer amendments,” said Jennifer Donohue, a Tennant campaign spokeswoman. “If she had, she would have supported the good things in the law, like not allowing insurance companies to deny kids with pre-existing conditions, and worked to make changes to the parts that don’t work.”
Tennant says she wants to delay the individual mandate -- which says most people must buy health insurance or face a tax penalty -- although she has not said how long she’d like the mandate delayed.
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, Tennant’s Republican opponent, was in Congress when the law was passed. She voted against it and she has voted to repeal, defund or cripple it dozens of times since then.
In her new ad on health care, Capito attacks the health care law while supportingr the provision on pre-existing conditions.
“This administration has put a big damper on our way of life and our love of freedom,” Capito says in the ad. - The Charleston Gazette, 9/8/14
Here's some more info:
http://insurancenewsnet.com/...
The 30-second ad, called "Delaney's story" is the campaign's first on local airwaves in about a week. The campaign purchased $50,000 worth of airtime for the first week in the Charleston, Beckley, Bluefield and North Central markets, according to the campaign.
The new ad starts with a picture of Delaney Wells, daughter of Natalie Tennant and state Sen. Erik Wells, as a newborn in the hospital. Delaney needed open heart surgery as a baby, Tennant says in the ad.
"While friends, family, and folks all across West Virginia prayed with us, the insurance company called her a pre-existing condition," Tennant says in the ad.
"I know health care reform wasn't done right, there's a lot I'll do to make it better for West Virginia, but I will never go back to the days of letting insurance companies deny coverage to our children."
The ad never specifically mentions the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. But Tennant has repeatedly pointed to her family's battle with insurance companies regarding Delaney's health in conveying her message on federal health care.
Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies must cover people who have pre-existing conditions. It is a component of the massive federal law many lawmakers have championed, including Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va and Tennant's opponent in the Senate race. - Insurance News Network, 9/8/14
It's understandable that Tennant has to walk a tight line when it comes to President Obama but this is a sign that she knows that while the President isn't popular in West Virginia, insuring people with pre-existing conditions is. By the way, I'm happy that local press is starting to catch on to this about Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R. WV):
http://www.wvgazette.com/...
At the One Stop on the East End of Charleston a 20-ounce orange Gatorade costs $1.49. If you buy one with a standard Chase-issued Visa debit card, about 12 cents of that transaction (11.87, to be exact), nearly 10 percent of the price, goes to Visa and Chase as a fee for processing the swipe of the debit card, One Stop President Michael Graney said.
“Swipe fees are sort of our worst enemy,” said Graney, who oversees 44 One Stops in West Virginia. “First of all, we have cost of goods sold, then labor as our second-biggest cost, the credit and debit fees are our third-biggest cost. So it dramatically affects my profitability.”
The fight over swipe fees is very complex and for very high stakes. Visa alone lists 264 separate rates of payment for swipe fees, depending on things like the type of card and what kind of purchase it is used for. It pits the nation’s largest financial institutions — like Visa and Chase — against the nation’s largest retailers — companies like Wal-Mart and Target — with both sides employing hundreds of lobbyists in a fight over billions of dollars a year in fees.
Smaller banks often partner with larger ones to issue credit cards, so they get a little money from swipe fees, but it’s not nearly as important to them as it is to the larger banks, said Joe Ellison, president of the West Virginia Bankers Association.
“Community banks that don’t have their own credit card system, they provide it mainly as a service to their customers because they don’t make very much money on it,” Ellison said.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act was passed after the financial crisis in an attempt to regulate and rein in the financial industry and forestall another crisis. Among many other things, it imposed limits on how much big banks — those with more than $10 billion in assets — can charge for debit card swipe fees. Soon after, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., sponsored a bill to delay the rules on swipe fees.
“Experts worry that small financial institutions will have to resort to increasing fees on checking accounts and other services, which will hurt consumers,” Capito’s office wrote in proposing the delay.
The bipartisan bill didn’t pass, but the limit on swipe fees ended up higher than had been written in Dodd-Frank and the fight continues in the courts.
It’s a familiar theme. Capito’s political opponents accuse her of cozying up to Wall Street’s biggest banks, while she counters that she’s looking out for community banks that support local economies.
West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, Capito’s main opponent in the race for U.S. Senate, began a recent speech to the state Chamber of Commerce with an anecdote about swipe fees, and an attack on Capito.
“Everywhere I go, West Virginia small-business owners, from Tucker County to Beckley, tell me these fees are killing them,” Tennant said last week at The Greenbrier resort. “This race offers a clear choice between my record of working for West Virginia and my opponent’s record of working for Wall Street.”
Tennant’s campaign also pointed to the fact that Capito’s husband, Charles, was hired as an executive by Wells Fargo in 2011, two weeks after Capito introduced her bill delaying swipe fees. Wells Fargo spent nearly $6 million lobbying the House and Senate on financial issues, including swipe fees, in 2011. - The Charleston Gazette, 9/3/14
We'll see if the needle will start to move in our direction here. In the mean time, click here to donate and get involved with Tennant's campaign:
http://natalietennant.com/