If you are already Insured you can’t have any Pre Existing Conditions.
I have paid continuously for my Health Insurance since I was 18 Years Old. I contracted Leukemia at age 52, my first real use of my Insurance Coverage outside of routine Doctor Visits and Prescription Drugs in nearly 35 Years.
That’s why they call it Insurance folks. You pay thinking that you might get sick and the Insurer is hoping that you won’t. It’s the same thing that Life Insurance Companies do.
The people who failed to get Coverage because it wasn’t important enough or worth the cost and sacrifice are the only ones affected by this so called Pre Existing rule.
If my Car had pre existing front end damage, I wouldn’t expect my new Insurance Company to pay for it when I signed up. If I was Insured when it happened, my previous Insurance Company would have paid to fix it (if I spent the money for Collision Coverage). Without that Coverage, I assumed the risk and should pay for the repair myself.
That being said, we have now saddled with the idea that Healthcare is a Right, so there is no going back. In other words, you can never take away an Entitlement once it is given. You can trim around the edges, for instance upping the SS or Medicare Ages, but even that would be a daunting task.
Logically the Age set to receive Benefits when the SS Program began should be adjusted up considering Life Expectancy has risen by about 15 Years (or more) since then. A gradual adjustment over the Years, adding a Month here and a Month there would have made it more palatable, but that didn’t happen.
Back on topic, the answer to this dilemma is setting up a High Risk pool of money to deal with this small group of individuals with so called Pre Exiting Conditions.
Let the Insurance Companies write up Policies that exclude treatment for the particular existing pre condition of previously Uninsured People. Then add a 5% / 10% (?) Tax to the Policies of those particular Individuals that is then paid into a National Assigned Risk Pool.
Why should people be rewarded for their irresponsibility, sick or not? Is a 55 or 10% Tax too much to ask when everyone else has paid the Freight their entire lives?
Any Treatment exempted by the Policy for Pre Existing Conditions would from that Pool of Money, not from the Insurance Company. Now the Insurance Company Risk is mitigated so their Policy Coverage can return to normal.
Only them can the Insurance Companies resume their Business Model offering Plans based on actual Risk Assessment.
Just my $.02, your Mileage may vary. Apologies for the rant.
>>>Is a 55 or 10% Tax too much to ask when everyone else has paid the Freight their entire lives?<<<
Correction:
Is a 5% or 10% Tax too much to ask when everyone else has paid the Freight their entire lives?
I’m sorry, but you are wrong. Young adults who have aged off their parent’s insurance and have pre-existing conditions can’t get insurance. There are lots and lots of them out there.
And that is why we are headed for economic disaster.
That is not what happened to me. My company canceled health insurance for all its employees and while I was able to get 16 more months through COBRA, it expired, and I was completely unable to buy health insurance from anybody.