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04/29/2019 12:00 AMState Representative Sean Scanlon (D-98) led passage of legislation to protect Connecticut residents with pre-existing conditions from discrimination when it comes to health insurance.
House Bill 5521, which passed the House unanimously, codifies into state law the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) protections for people with pre-existing conditions so that those protections will exist even if the ACA is repealed.
“No one in Connecticut should ever be discriminated against because they have a pre-existing condition and I’m really proud to have led passage of this bipartisan bill to ensure that, regardless of what happens in Washington, Connecticut residents with pre-existing conditions will always be protected under state law,” said Scanlon, House chairman of the legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee.
According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation report, 522,000 non-elderly adults—or one in four residents—in Connecticut have what would be considered to be a pre-existing condition.
“We should never go back to a time in this state or country where someone with a pre-existing condition can be refused coverage or dropped from their insurance just because they are a cancer survivor,” Scanlon said. “That’s just not right and I’m glad every one of my colleagues in the House agreed.”