Kent Conrad: “on another matter, I want to address the issue of a young man named Ethan Bedrick. Let me put up Ethan's picture so we…”

“on another matter, I want to address the issue of a young man named Ethan Bedrick. Let me put up Ethan's picture so we can see who we are talking about. This is Ethan. Ethan was born on January 28, 1992. His delivery went badly, and as a result of asphyxiation, he has suffered from severe cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegic which impairs motor functions in all of his limbs. You can see him. He is a fighter. Look at that look on his face. He is a happy young fellow, even though he faces severe restrictions. He was put on a regimen of intense physical, occupational and speech therapy to help him overcome some of these obstacles. At the age of 14 months, Ethan's insurance company abruptly cut off coverage for his speech therapy and limited his physical therapy to only 15 sessions per year. Mr. President, can you imagine, this little boy was damaged at birth, and when he is 14 months old, the insurance company cuts off coverage for his speech therapy, limits his physical therapy to 15 sessions a year. At 14 months, when the insurance company made these decisions to cut off this young child from the therapy he needed, the change was recommended by an insurance company representative performing a utilization review of his case. The reviewer cited a 50 percent chance that Ethan could walk by age 5 as a minimal benefit of further therapy. Further, the reviewer never met personally with Ethan, his family, or Ethan's team of regular doctors.”