Legislative Update

MRF E-MAIL NEWS Motorcycle Riders Foundation
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For Immediate Release

22 September 2008

Contact: Jeff Hennie, Vice President of Government Relations, MRF
Email: jeff@mrf.org

The Motorcycle Riders Foundation reports that HR 6908 is scheduled to be voted on by the US House of Representatives Tuesday, September 23rd.
According to HR 6809, if an insurance provider wants to be able to put limitations on payment for an injury from a specific source they must meet the following requirements.
+ "Make such limitations and restrictions explicit and clear; "
+ "If part of a group plan, must be disclosed to plan sponsor in advance of the point of sale of plan;"
+ "The plan sponsor and issuer of health insurance coverage provide a description that is easily understandable to the participant prior to enrollment."

This is a belt tightening bill for the insurance companies. Under HR 6908 if they want to limit payments for an injury they must spell it out ahead of enrollment in the plan, currently the insurance companies can exploit the loophole with out any prior notification.

HR 6908 was supposed to be considered by two other committees but they both waived all jurisdictions over the bill.

The bill will be considered under a suspension of the US House rules along with 36 other pieces of legislation. Suspension bills, as they are known, generally pass with out complication. The House is scheduled to adjourn at the end of this week along with the Senate. It's a solid bet that both the House and Senate will return after the election for a lame duck session.