Senator Byron Dorgan Discusses Lifetime Limits in Health Insurance with Vox

Senator Dorgan said it was a great lesson on how ordinary people can lobby Congress. In the article titled, “A former senator explains how regular people can effectively lobby Congress,” Dorgan told Vox the story about how he became convinced that lifetime caps in those policies needed to be eliminated. He said a constituent of his named Brenda Neubauer began to write letters to the editor and attended Dorgan’s events where she would bring up the issue of lifetime limits and how it affected her family personally; her son suffered from hemophilia and would run out of medical benefits by the time he reached the age of 16. She was persistent and made the issue personal, which enabled her to be an effective lobbyist. Dorgan said he didn’t know there were lifetime limits on many health insurance policies. “I thought if you were insured, you were covered,” he said. When Senator Dorgan added the ban on lifetime limits in the Affordable Care Act, it provided protection for thousands of American families that otherwise faced bankruptcy, including the Morrison family discussed in the article, “The Obamacare provision that saved thousands from bankruptcy.” Republican proposals to replace Obamacare remain split on allowing the return of lifetime limits and legislators will likely face heated lobbying battles over this provision. 

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