In the past, pregnancy counted as a preexisting condition.
The American Health Care Act, the GOP's Obamacare replacement plan, is heading for a vote in the House of Representatives.A big question about the bill is whether people with preexisting conditions will be able to access health insurance if it becomes law. Before the ACA went into effect, people who had these conditions could be denied health insurance coverage, or face much higher prices for their health insurance than people who did not have preexisting conditions.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, an estimated 27% of Americans under 65 have health conditions that could leave them uninsurable. The Kaiser Family Foundation also summed up some of the pre-existing conditions that insurers declined coverage to before the ACA, including diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, which affects millions of Americans.
Here are some of the most common preexisting conditions
- AIDS/HIV
- Lupus
- Alcohol abuse/ Drug abuse with recent treatment
- Severe mental disorders such as bipolar disorder or an eating disorder
- Alzheimer's/dementia
- Multiple sclerosis
- Rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other inflammatory joint disease
- Muscular dystrophy
- Cancer, within a period of time
- Obesity, severe
- Cerebral palsy
- Organ transplant
- Congestive heart failure
- Paraplegia
- Coronary artery/heart disease, bypass surgery
- Paralysis
- Crohn's disease/ ulcerative colitis
- Parkinson's disease
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease /emphysema
- Pending surgery or hospitalization
- Diabetes mellitus
- Pneumocystic pneumonia
- Epilepsy
- Pregnancy or expectant parent
- Hemophilia
- Sleep apnea
- Hepatitis C
- Stroke
- Kidney disease, renal failure
- Transsexualism