Imagine that you are the unfortunate parent of a child born with a congenital deformity of the face or skull. Your child will have normal intelligence and has nothing wrong with him other than a very unusual appearance and possibly some minor visual or eating problems. You are buoyed by the fact that you live close to a large University that has a top-notch team of craniofacial surgeons who have restored hundreds of kids with the same defect to almost normal appearances. You are told that the first surgery will be the most major of several procedures, most of which will occur later before the child enters school and that by the time he is ready for kindergarten his appearance will allow his classmates to accept him as a normal classmate.

But suddenly, when you return him to the surgeons at three years of age to have the planned second, "less drastic," operation you are panicked to find that your insurance company will not cover it at all. But wait a minute you say; both you and your husband have been told by your employers that you have excellent benefits! Imagine the shock you go through when someone on the phone at the insurance company, a nameless, soul-less "customer service representative" tell you the denial of the next surgery was made because someone determined that the purpose of the surgery was cosmetic in nature and therefore not a covered benefit. After further protest you find that the only plastic surgery this company will cover is for "functional" problems. Your complaints to those higher up in the decision making chain are only met with stiffer resistance. You can't afford to pay for the expensive procedure and without it the final appearance of your child will still leave him with the stigma of a "freak".

Unfortunately this story occurs all too often in America, despite our reputation for having one of the most sophisticated health systems in the world.

Two years ago, working with members of Congress, Representative Sue Kelly from New York and Senator John McCain of Arizona, bills were introduced which ASPS and Dr. Haeck helped to develop that would eliminate these senseless denials, and force insurance companies to face up to their responsibilities. Called the "Children's Deformities Acts" they have been championed by Dr. Haeck and his colleagues in meeting after meeting with congressmen and women from all fifty states.

It was on September 11, 2001 that Dr. Haeck was traveling to Washington D.C. for one of hi bi-monthly trips to lobby congress for these kids. Needless to say this trip was cancelled. He returned to D.C. five weeks later. This next trip led Dr. Haeck and his colleagues directly into the Senate office buildings on the day the anthrax scare broke wide open.

"We completed our agenda that day just before they evacuated some of the buildings we were in, but we still managed to make over twenty contacts with congressional offices," Dr. Haeck says. "It was still a little nerve wracking at first, thinking we might have been exposed, but when we thought about those kids and why we had come, it was easy to press on to the end of the day."

And these plastic surgeons have continued to meet success (as well as some resistance) as The Children's Deformities Act now has a hundred co-sponsors in Congress!

Many of the key sponsors of this legislation were recruited two years ago when Dr. Haeck led a press conference in the Senate to introduce not only Senator McCain and his sponsorship, but also to introduce to the national media four children with significant defects who had experienced denials of their proposed surgery.

"In 2002 we're going right back with more surgeons who will continue to keep up the needed pressure on these elected officials," says Dr. Haeck. "Once we explain the situation to these people, that the function of the face in our society is to appear normal, we meet almost no resistance. The challenge then is to reach as many members of congress as we physically can in the next year."

As more efforts unfold this year, this website will continue to post the news from Washington D.C. and the anticipated resolution Dr. Haeck is seeking. When you meet Dr. Haeck in his offices, please feel free to ask for more information about his experiences as the head of these important lobbying efforts.