Not all pre-existing are the same:
1. Genetic/nature
2. Nurture, lifestyle while a chld.
3. Nurture, lifestyle choices while an adult.
4. Results of negligence, crimiality of others
5. Results of true accidents
6. Results of heroism; sacrificed yourself to help others.
Insurance companies should be required to cover some with no surcharge.
But for adult lifestyle choices insurance companies and health providers should be allowed to charge as much as they can without restraint ... other than competition.
From drugs and alcohol to sexual promiscuity to gluttony and sky diving and football, most pre-existing cases and most medical costs are from life style choices.
And the award for most cogent, concise, and clear-thinking rational breakdown of the problem goes to....
drumroll....
spintreebob!!!!! Yeah!
Nicely said.
Many insurance companies deny individual coverage for people with metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and/or Type II diabetes even if the person seeks a very high deductible like $5,000 or $10,000. It is still up for debate whether these diseases are caused by lifestyle or genetics. It is in every generation of my family all the way back to my great grandmother who was born in the 1870s!
The scary thing is that people age 50 and up are the group who have been hit very hard by unemployment and are having difficulty finding a job. These are the same people who tend to have or be developing the above mentioned conditions.
And yes, the number of people denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions may be small. But they tend to be the ones who have paid into the insurance system their entire life and suddenly find themselves without health coverage and unable to qualify for state plans because of savings or whatever. All it takes is one catastrophic health event and they are suddenly in a huge amount of debt.
This is something I wish we could figure out how to fix. I understand the business of insurance and actuarial tables and why they deny coverage, but there has to be a clever company out there somewhere who could figure out how to cover them.
If we decide some people shouldn’t have to pay for what would be the high cost of their insurance, why should we dictate that certain private companies have to bear that cost instead?
If all pre-existing conditions are covered, it’s really not insurance any more, is it? It is healthcare coverage, but not insurance.