Comments After Review of Bill
- The bill has passed the House, but not the Senate. If passed by the Senate it would still need to be signed by the Governor. If you look at the actual bill you'll see some things have been crossed out, and some (all caps) have been added. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/.../PN/Public/btCheck.cfm...
- Some people may be covered- depending on the specific insurer and IF the insurer plays fair- if the bill passes and is signed. Many won't be covered because their insurers are not included. Current patients may also be excluded. New policies may cover some people as long as the new policies are started 8 months after the passage of this bill.
- Doctor protection will remain about the same as it is now- not good. Page 6, Line 9 was removed from the original protection wording that was saying long term antibiotics are ok to prescribe, so they won't be now by the way this bill is now worded. Additionally, Page 6, Line 13 allows the medical board to go after docs for the same reasons that they do now- flaws in record keeping.
- The above are the facts. My opinion/guess is- the 180 days clause is in there to do one or more things, some of which are... 1.) wait till the Obamacare policies/insurers have time to make changes to try to counter the bill's allowances and to get them past the next "sign up" period by delaying action for another year. 2.) To allow more time for the IDSA/AAN new guidelines to be published. I expect they will blow us all out of the water and that is when we will need the big guns to counter them.
- Keep in mind too, the Senate can amend the bill also, once or even many times, so it may look totally different by the time it gets to the floor for attempted passage. THEN, if it does pass in the Senate, the Governor can kick it or sign it and often that is the worst part of trying to get a Lyme bill passed. And last thought- how many Lyme doctors take insurance? Without much stronger protection and support this certainly won't make them change their minds.