As the nation contemplates the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare), there is an interesting part of the law that directly affects people in car accidents that is often overlooked: The prohibition against discriminating against preexisting conditions.
For many years, I represented people who were absolutely terrified that if they left their current employer, they could never again get insurance. The reason? They had sustained an injury in a car accident and now had a “preexisting condition.” This meant that if they lost their jobs, they would either not be able to get insurance at all, or only get insurance that covered them minus the preexisting condition. This was true even for folks whose condition had resolved and wasn’t considered a permanent injury.
Pre-Obamacare, if you had a back injury in a car accident, chances were that if you lost your health insurance, you couldn’t get coverage for your back for many years. This led to significant worry on the part of my clients. With the elimination of consideration of preexisting conditions, people who are injured through no fault of their own can continue to be eligible for health insurance!
So, regardless of your political persuasion, if you are in a car accident and suffer an injury, be glad that preexisting condition exclusions no longer apply to your health insurance.
