I sell health insurance in Californicate. All policies sold during ‘open enrollment’ are ‘guaranteed issue’. There are no heatlh questions.
Your friend with Cancer needs to ask the the doctors/hospitals he has treatment from which plans from the ones currently available will pay for the treatment he is recieving. Also, the only way the deductible is that high is if he is on an older plan or it is a family plan with a combined deductible.
It is not the preexisting condition limitations that get the consumer now, it is the restrictions on coverage inside the new policies by the contracts they are forced to sell. :(
Are the sellers forced to tell the "consumers" they're getting near worthless policies?
My doctor tells me, (correctly, I believe) that he knows very little about health care plans, except his own and has no intention of learning as it's not his job.
I doubt that many doctors are educated in these matters, they hire people to take care of that.