National Patient Advocate Foundation commissioned Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, LLC, a national health economics policy firm, to conduct an independent analysis to determine the impact of remedying three essential aspects of health insurance and to evaluate any publically available cost estimates.  The areas include: eliminating pre-existing conditions; limiting out-of-pocket expenses; and eliminating annual and lifetime coverage limits.

The three major health care reform bills being considered in the House and Senate each contain similar provisions addressing these insurance practices suggesting that lawmakers are in agreement that these issues must be fixed.  Under the pressure to merge the bills, it will be important to reach an agreement on implementation of these reforms that is acceptable to both sides of the aisle, so that the day-to-day struggles of un- and underinsured patients are not forgotten or prolonged.

The findings of the research are the following:

• Health insurance provides access to both physical health care and financial health. Every American's financial health depends upon the protection provided by adequate and affordable health insurance coverage.
• The magnitude and severity of these insurance market failures is increasing over time, which is why insurance market reforms must provide protection for individual, small group plan, large group plan, and self-funded plan enrollees without delay.
• The health insurance market can be reformed in a cost-effective fashion because the insurance pool will be expanded to spread risk. Substantive changes in health care ultimately will be required to "bend the cost curve," but these efforts will come later, and rest upon first fixing the health insurance market.

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