From the Boston Globe:

The Massachusetts legislature is considering more than 70 bills that could mandate medical insurance coverage for people with disabilities and potentially raise healthcare costs.

Among the proposals are bills that would mandate coverage for hearing aids, treatments to fix cleft palates, and wigs for cancer patients.

The proposals to require coverage of everything from aquatherapy to vitamins for certain patients raise broader questions about where legislators should draw the line — and whether they should be the ones making delicate decisions that require balancing cost with patient needs.

Some ethicists and economists suggest that such complex and high-stakes choices should instead be made by panels of healthcare specialists who are appointed by lawmakers, as is done in many other developed countries.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 11:40 pm and is filed under ethics, insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.