The News Journal
Editorial

WAIT FOR INSURANCE PROBE
BEFORE DEMANDING REPORT

Illogical Request

This is the illogical request House Minority Whip Danny Short has placed before State Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart.

To her credit, the commissioner is not budging on her refusal. The request is a distraction from the commissioners' obligation to examine the preauthorization practices of several health insurers.

Short is on a separate, albeit admirable mission. He wants evidence to shape legislation to punish industry heavyweights -- Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Coventry Health Care and Aetna -- for denying coverage of tests that are medically necessary.

Incomplete evidence is useless for crafting tough compliance laws. What Rep. Short needs is a finished report, the result of exacting fact-finding into the intentional and unintentional loopholes that don't allow needed medical procedures to be performed.

Why press for partial information when the legislation won't be ripe for General Assembly passage for at least another six months?

Even if Commissioner Stewart were to comply with Short's request, it won't have evidence from a similar investigation by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.

That national probe includes the same health insurance providers, and its work is scheduled to be completed earlier than Delaware's.

Rep. Short, for the benefit of your constituents and other Delawareans, be patient.