Stop Insurance Denials - Support the Reconstructive Surgery Act!
JANUARY 2009 - PLEASE NOTE: The Reconstructive Surgery Act must be re-introduced with the new session of Congress. Delays are expected due to the overall healthcare debate. Please sign the petition, an ongoing project of AICA. Check the website for updates and the new bill number when it becomes available.
Stop insurance denials for cleft/craniofacial care! Support the Reconstructive Surgery Act! For more information, visit our advocacy website at http://www.aica-advocates.blogspot.com/.
For information about support and services, visit http://www.cleftadvocate.org/ and http://www.ameriface.org/.
You, or someone you love, can become a craniofacial patient at any time.
An accident, an animal attack, a burn, a stroke, a disease, or the joyous birth of a child. In a blink of an eye, life can change.
According to a report issued in January 2006 by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), orofacial clefts are now the number one most common birth defects in the United States (http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r060105.htm).
Thousands of babies are born each year with vascular anomalies, such as venous malformations, hemangiomas and port wine stains.
Many more individuals become craniofacial patients each year due to burns, trauma and diseases like oral/head/neck cancer.
Unfortunately, there has been much documentation of families and individuals having to fight to receive the medically-necessary treatment and reconstructive surgery needed to live a healthy, normal life.
The Reconstructive Surgery Act (HR2820) was re-introduced by Congressman Mike Ross of Arkansas on June 21, 2007. Under this legislation, health insurance and managed care companies will be forced to recognize that ongoing medical procedures needed by craniofacial patients are not cosmetic, but are reconstructive in nature.
While some states have laws guaranteeing coverage for treatment and surgery for patients with craniofacial abnormalities, most of them (as well as proposed federal legislation similar to HR2820) guarantee coverage for patients only to age 21; unfortunately, craniofacial conditions do not simply disappear when a child reaches adulthood and many patients do not even acquire their condition until adulthood. State laws also do not address the issue of self-insured funds.
We encourage members of Congress to research and co-sponsor HR2820. This legislation is designed to protect citizens from discrimination in health care. The need for this initiative is far greater than you may think.
Along with constituent letters collected from around the country, we will submit this petition not only to Congressman Mike Ross to share with his colleagues in the House, but we will also submit a copy to each and every member Congress personally. We look forward to finding a Senator equally as dedicated as Mr. Ross to introduce this legislation on the Senate side.
For more information, visit our website at http://www.aica-advocates.blogspot.com/.
JANUARY 2009 - PLEASE NOTE: The Reconstructive Surgery Act must be re-introduced with the new session of Congress. Delays are expected due to the overall healthcare debate. Please sign the petition, an ongoing project of AICA. Check the website for updates and the new bill number when it becomes available.
Stop insurance denials for cleft/craniofacial care! Support the Reconstructive Surgery Act! For more information, visit our advocacy website at http://www.aica-advocates.blogspot.com/.
For information about support and services, visit http://www.cleftadvocate.org/ and http://www.ameriface.org/.
You, or someone you love, can become a craniofacial patient at any time.
An accident, an animal attack, a burn, a stroke, a disease, or the joyous birth of a child. In a blink of an eye, life can change.
According to a report issued in January 2006 by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), orofacial clefts are now the number one most common birth defects in the United States (http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r060105.htm).
Thousands of babies are born each year with vascular anomalies, such as venous malformations, hemangiomas and port wine stains.
Many more individuals become craniofacial patients each year due to burns, trauma and diseases like oral/head/neck cancer.
Unfortunately, there has been much documentation of families and individuals having to fight to receive the medically-necessary treatment and reconstructive surgery needed to live a healthy, normal life.
The Reconstructive Surgery Act (HR2820) was re-introduced by Congressman Mike Ross of Arkansas on June 21, 2007. Under this legislation, health insurance and managed care companies will be forced to recognize that ongoing medical procedures needed by craniofacial patients are not cosmetic, but are reconstructive in nature.
While some states have laws guaranteeing coverage for treatment and surgery for patients with craniofacial abnormalities, most of them (as well as proposed federal legislation similar to HR2820) guarantee coverage for patients only to age 21; unfortunately, craniofacial conditions do not simply disappear when a child reaches adulthood and many patients do not even acquire their condition until adulthood. State laws also do not address the issue of self-insured funds.
We encourage members of Congress to research and co-sponsor HR2820. This legislation is designed to protect citizens from discrimination in health care. The need for this initiative is far greater than you may think.
Along with constituent letters collected from around the country, we will submit this petition not only to Congressman Mike Ross to share with his colleagues in the House, but we will also submit a copy to each and every member Congress personally. We look forward to finding a Senator equally as dedicated as Mr. Ross to introduce this legislation on the Senate side.
For more information, visit our website at http://www.aica-advocates.blogspot.com/.
As your constituents, we are signing this petition urging you to co-sponsor The Reconstructive Surgery Act of 2007 (HR2820), introduced by Congressman Mike Ross of Arkansas on June 21. Signers are from all over the United States, living in many Congressional districts.
According to a report issued in January 2006 by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), orofacial clefts are now the number one most common birth defects in the United States (http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r060105.htm).
Thousands of babies are born each year with vascular anomalies, such as venous malformations, hemangiomas and port wine stains.
Many more individuals become craniofacial patients each year due to burns, trauma and diseases like oral/head/neck cancer.
Unfortunately, there has been much documentation of families and individuals having to fight to receive the medically-necessary treatment and reconstructive surgery needed to live a healthy, normal life.
The Reconstructive Surgery Act (HR2820) was re-introduced by Congressman Mike Ross of Arkansas on June 21, 2007. Under this legislation, health insurance and managed care companies will be forced to recognize that ongoing medical procedures needed by craniofacial patients are not cosmetic, but are reconstructive in nature.
While some states have laws guaranteeing coverage for treatment and surgery for patients with craniofacial abnormalities, most of them (as well as proposed federal legislation similar to HR2820) guarantee coverage for patients only to age 21; unfortunately, craniofacial conditions do not simply disappear when a child reaches adulthood and many patients do not even acquire their condition until adulthood. State laws also do not address the issue of self-insured funds.
We encourage you to research and co-sponsor HR2820. This legislation is designed to protect citizens from discrimination in health care. The need for this initiative is far greater than you may think.
We look forward to hearing from you or your health care legislative aide, and to seeing your name on the list of co-sponsors of HR2820.
For more information, visit our website at
My 3 month old son has a complete cleft and i dont have the means to pay for the surgery. the goverment won't even give me medicaid how much more helpless can one mother possibly feel?
I am a person who inherited crouzon's syndrome, a craniofacial deformity. My life was so very unpleasant growing up with this that words can not express the torture I endured! I was denied funds to cover surgery and care. This devastated my life! I can never be a well adjusted person because of this! Please, give us the help we need!
My son was born with a unilateral cleft lip/palate. He is in his first stage of orthodontics. We are lucky to have health/dental insurance but are facing a maximum lifetime benefit so future orthodontia will not be covered.
As an adult born with a unilateral cleft lip and cleft palate, I can guarantee if you really want to do something about health care in this country ... then get this legislation done. Thank you and God bless.
I have a niece who was born with a severe unilateral cleft lip & palate. She has several operations remaining to correct this birth defect. Insurance companies consider some of these operations to be cosmetic and therefore elective surgery. Her mother has been battling insurance companies who seem to do anything to avoid payment for her final operations to repair the injuries caused by this birth defect.
My daughter was born with a severe unilateral cleft lip/palate. She has had multiple operations and is on her second round of orthodontia to prepare for tooth implants. She still faces rhinoplasty to correct the flat nostril. I have been fortunate to have health/dental insurance cover most of her bills. However, I have exhausted the dental lifetime payout, and now cannot get the health insurance company to help pay because they fail to recognize this as part of her birth defect/deem it cosmetic. I can only imagine the continued fight I will have trying to get her nose fixed, despite the fact that she only gets between 70-80% total oxygen intake due to the malformation. Please pass this bill to help my daughter and many others!
I was born with a severe underbite from an underdeveloped upper jaw. After multiple visits to the orthodontist, I was told that I needed to wait until after I stopped growing to consider my options, as my jaw would change until then. He was right - the problem only got worse. By the time I stopped growing, I was out of school and no longer had insurance. Now I am an otherwise healthy 26 year old with bite, joint, and pain issues from my jaw. And my current employer's insurance plan has a SPECIFIC EXCLUSION for my problem. I am looking at a 25-50K bill for a surgery that I have needed for the past 20 years. Where's the justice in that?
We adopted our son from China and he has a bilateral cleft lip and cleft of the soft palate. He will require mutiple surgeries and years of speech therapy which insurance will not cover for one reason or another. If CL/CP is the most common birth defect in the US why isnt anything covered under insurance?
Would an insurance executive's child with cleft palate be denied as cosmetic? I wonder. Smoking cessation or weight management is covered by insurance but not cleft palate. This is just wrong, wrong, wrong.
My cousin suffers from this debilitating problem, and these surgeries are far from "cosmetic;" calling these surgeries a choice or cosmetic is tantamount to calling a colonoscopy or a mammogram unnecessary precautions.
I am a parent of a child that needs cranial facial surgery. My child has cruzons and to know that many insurance companies are denying coverage for children and adults with this syndrome is heartbreaking. These surgeries are necessary, not cosmetic!
No child in America should have to wait for reconstructive surgery for cleft lip, cleft palate, or other related conditions. Congress needs to pass this now!
I have a cleft lip and palate child. He needs many stages of reconstruction and may different medical disciplines to complete. Healthcare plans usually don't accommodate for every specialty. Women with breast cancer can get new boobs -- kids should get a mouth to talk and eat with.
