Bill looks at insurance ban on drunks

Kirsten Searer

Thursday, March 3, 2005 | 9:23 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A new bill would prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to people who are injured while drunk.

The law goes back to the 1950s but has proved problematic today because emergency room doctors often are afraid to test their patients for drugs or alcohol, said Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, who sponsored the bill.

"They don't test because they're afraid the insurers aren't going to pay the bill," Leslie told the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee.

Timothy Coughlin, a physician on the faculty of the medical school, said doctors are "missing a golden opportunity to prevent accidents and loss of life in the future, because I think it's had a chilling effect on doctors trying to make the appropriate referrals."

The problem also slows down the screening process of injured drunk drivers, said Laurel Stadler of the Lyon County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

"Emergency rooms have become the safe havens for drunk drivers," she said.

Representatives of several insurance companies expressed concern that the bill would override a common provision in policies that excludes coverage for people who injure themselves while committing a felony.

James Jackson, who represents Americas Health Insurance Plans, an association of health insurers, said that exclusion has proved legal through a series of court cases. Assembly Bill 63 would jeopardize that provision, he said.

"Somebody who commits a felony and injures themselves would also have to be covered under the policy," he said.

Others, including Nevadans for Affordable Healthcare, worried that the bill would effectively add another mandate to insurance companies in the state, adding to the overall expense of health coverage.

"We are in opposition to any new mandates being placed upon the insured," said Janice Pine, a lobbyist for Saint Mary's Health Plans. "We believe the responsibility for wrong doing needs to be placed on the wrong doer."

Leslie argues that alcoholism is a disease and should be recognized as such.

"A diabetic who doesn't take their insulin still has their medical expenses covered," she said. "A smoker who gets lung cancer still has their expenses covered."