Big Insurance drops kids from coverage days before new rules

Being in the health insurance industry really is the way to go. You can pay some of the highest executive salaries in the country even during the worst recession in decades, implement double digit rate increases every year, opt out of paying when you don't want to and drop trouble making customers who dare to have pre-existing conditions. Even better, you have one political party that's dedicated to allowing that to continue and a second who is terrified of confronting you.

It's good to be da' king.

The new healthcare law forbids insurers from turning down children with pre-existing conditions starting Thursday, one of several reforms Democrats are eager to highlight this week as they try to build support for the law ahead of the mid-term elections. But news of insurers dropping their plans as a result of the new law has thrown a damper on that strategy and prompted fierce push-back from the administration's allies at HCAN.

The announcement could lead to higher costs for some parents who are buying separate coverage for themselves and their children at lower cost than the family coverage that's available to them.

"We’re just days away from a new era when insurance companies must stop denying coverage to kids just because they are sick, and now some of the biggest changed their minds and decided to refuse to sell child-only coverage," HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome said in a statement. "The latest announcement by the insurance companies that they won't cover kids is immoral, and to blame their appalling behavior on the new law is patently dishonest.