Full Text of HR0474 095th General Assembly
HR0474 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, Many families face substantial hardship when a | 3 |
| child in that family suffers from a brain disorder that is | 4 |
| congenital or acquired at a young age; and
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| WHEREAS, These disorders are sometimes known at birth, but | 6 |
| sometimes are not diagnosed until later in infancy, childhood, | 7 |
| or adolescence when an expected level of function does not | 8 |
| appear at the expected age it should; and
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| WHEREAS, These disorders can include, among others, Down | 10 |
| syndrome, cerebral palsy, and disorders within the autism | 11 |
| spectrum; and
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| WHEREAS, These children are likely to benefit from | 13 |
| habilitative care as prescribed by a physician, including | 14 |
| occupational, physical, speech, and language therapy; and
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| WHEREAS, In Illinois today, insurance companies typically | 16 |
| provide coverage for restorative or rehabilitative therapy for | 17 |
| children who, having had the ability to walk and talk, lose | 18 |
| those skills in a car accident or from a devastating disease, | 19 |
| such as meningitis; and
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| WHEREAS, The identical services are denied coverage by many |
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| insurance companies when, as opposed to rehabilitative | 2 |
| services to restore a lost skill, the services are | 3 |
| habilitative, to develop new skills; and | 4 |
| WHEREAS, Providing insurance coverage for rehabilitative | 5 |
| therapy to regain a lost skill is of no greater importance than | 6 |
| providing insurance coverage for habilitative therapy to | 7 |
| develop a new skill and this unequal treatment of similarly | 8 |
| situated children and families is arbitrary and unfairly | 9 |
| discriminates against children with identical needs; and | 10 |
| WHEREAS, The practice of denying insurance coverage for | 11 |
| habilitative services discriminates against children with | 12 |
| neurological impairments, because the vast majority of these | 13 |
| children have congenital brain disorders, necessitating | 14 |
| habilitative therapies, and is contrary to the ideals of our | 15 |
| society which values access to medical care of all patients | 16 |
| with similar conditions; and | 17 |
| WHEREAS, The State of Illinois already recognizes the | 18 |
| wrongful nature of this discrimination by meeting its | 19 |
| obligations to provide habilitative services in the Covering | 20 |
| ALL KIDS Health Insurance Program; and | 21 |
| WHEREAS, In the State of Maryland, similar discrimination | 22 |
| was resolved by the passage of a law mandating insurance |
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| coverage for habilitative services; the economic impact of that | 2 |
| law was considered by the Maryland Health Care Commission, | 3 |
| which reported in 2006 that the mandate for insurance coverage | 4 |
| of children's habilitative services amounted to only $5 of the | 5 |
| annual cost of a group insurance policy, or 0.1% of the annual | 6 |
| premium, and only $2 of the annual premium as a marginal cost | 7 |
| (cost of the benefit minus the value of services covered were | 8 |
| there no mandate); therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 10 |
| NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | 11 |
| urge the Division of Insurance of the Department of Financial | 12 |
| and Professional Regulation and the Department of Human | 13 |
| Services, in consultation with insurance companies, support | 14 |
| groups for children in need of habilitative services, and | 15 |
| medical practitioners specializing in the care of children to | 16 |
| undertake a study of this disparate treatment of Illinois | 17 |
| children and investigate: (1) the insurance treatment for | 18 |
| habilitative services by insurance companies doing business in | 19 |
| Illinois; and (2) the potential costs to premium holders by | 20 |
| mandating the coverage of habilitative care, and also the cost | 21 |
| savings of such a mandate, both societal and as an impact upon | 22 |
| reducing costs to the Covering ALL KIDS Health Insurance | 23 |
| Program; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be |
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| delivered to the Governor, the Secretary of Human Services, the | 2 |
| Secretary of Financial and Professional Regulation, the | 3 |
| Director of Insurance, and the Attorney General.
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