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A preexisting condition is an illness or injury that you have had in the past that could affect you in the future.
Yes, it existed previously, I have that much.
So lets says a 20 year old person is a football player or a boxer, who has had a lot of trauma to his body, when he is 40-50 years old he might end up in a wheel chair, or suffer early dementia.
Then we have a healthy person who loses their job, gets a new job and goes to the doctor for the flu, and it is found that he has stage zero throat cancer.
What if a person has high blood pressure, or smoked for ten years and has since quit for ten years or more?
What about a person who had a bad traffic accident as a young person, and was in a full body cast for months, and is now a healthy active 30 or 40 year old?
Or what if a person's family history has a high risk for cancer?
Can these people be refused health insurance for the remainder of their lives?
Can these people be dropped from an existing policy?
Can these people switch jobs by moving to another sate, and get health insurance?
If #3 is true, can I be kicked to the curb if I go too long between jobs? And how long is that?
I know a person who had home insurance for 20 years, and never filed a claim. Then one year he had a hail storm, claimed his damaged roof, had a great aunt fall down the stairs, claimed her medical costs, and the fireplace popped out an ember and burned a 6" spot on his carpet, so claimed his carpet. The insurance company dropped him after the third claim. So health insurance is not like other insurance, because we know that people get sick.
The question is this, are we just allowing this ability to deny insurance to folks with preexisting conditions, because we're trying to prevent a leech from purposely going without insurance until he gets sick. Sort of like preventing a person from waiting until his house catches fire before getting fire insurance?
Or do we want to sanitize health insurance so only people who never get sick can have it? If so, where do these people go, who have been sick, or are sick?
So lets says a 20 year old person is a football player or a boxer, who has had a lot of trauma to his body, when he is 40-50 years old he might end up in a wheel chair, or suffer early dementia.
Then we have a healthy person who loses their job, gets a new job and goes to the doctor for the flu, and it is found that he has stage zero throat cancer.
What if a person has high blood pressure, or smoked for ten years and has since quit for ten years or more?
What about a person who had a bad traffic accident as a young person, and was in a full body cast for months, and is now a healthy active 30 or 40 year old?
Or what if a person's family history has a high risk for cancer?
Can these people be refused health insurance for the remainder of their lives?
Can these people be dropped from an existing policy?
Can these people switch jobs by moving to another sate, and get health insurance?
If #3 is true, can I be kicked to the curb if I go too long between jobs? And how long is that?
I know a person who had home insurance for 20 years, and never filed a claim. Then one year he had a hail storm, claimed his damaged roof, had a great aunt fall down the stairs, claimed her medical costs, and the fireplace popped out an ember and burned a 6" spot on his carpet, so claimed his carpet. The insurance company dropped him after the third claim. So health insurance is not like other insurance, because we know that people get sick.
The question is this, are we just allowing this ability to deny insurance to folks with preexisting conditions, because we're trying to prevent a leech from purposely going without insurance until he gets sick. Sort of like preventing a person from waiting until his house catches fire before getting fire insurance?
Or do we want to sanitize health insurance so only people who never get sick can have it? If so, where do these people go, who have been sick, or are sick?
its like a 78 yr old getting chemo...all it is ...is a waste of money
yes I said have some pride
sorry if that insults you , but I was always taught DO IT YOURSELF...NEVER, NEVER RELY ON ANYONE ELSE OR ANYOTHER ENTITY (LIKE INSURANCE)...never expect someone else to pay you bills..
A nice form of rationing. Only the very wealthy can help the economy, while the ones that cannot afford it, can't further damage the economy. Funny how these discussion go around in a circle, back to the beginning.
Would you be willing to make a bet with me like this. I will bet you the Ravens will win the Super Bowl that was just played and by 3 points. Let's say we bet $100,000.00. Would you take the bet? Why not?
Oh, clever, clever! How about this? San Fransisco lost the Super Bowl this year. Wanna bet they will never win another Super Bowl?
Yes. Assuming they are insured before the conditions are discovered. My insurance covers my kids once they're 10 days old. Before that, the risk is mine because I chose to have them. If it turns out they're healthy, they're added. If not, it was my risk not theirs.
The point is that it is NOT the insurance company's fault someone develops a condition like this. They did nothing to cause the condition. Why should they be required to pay for the condition?
Life is not risk free.
The origins of covering pre-existing conditions come from long ago. People that had serious, or chronic conditions, would lose their jobs. Some lost their jobs as a result of these conditions. People with these ailments knew that if they ever left their employer for whatever reason, they'd not be able to get health insurance again, unless they could afford extremely high rates. I know a woman that had breast cancer, and she knows full well what her chances of being insured again are.
The second reason has to do with the Mandate. The mandated health insurance issue has been bandied about for many, many years before Obama ever stepped foot in DC. It all started out as a movement to try and stop the ER rush, where so many uninsured people would wind up at the ER seeking treatment. Many years of research found that many of the patients could have been treated far more effectively, and far, far cheaper, through community clinics or elsewhere. In addition, those same studies found many of these patient's ailments would not have become so serious if they had preventative care.
Once upon a time, it was a conservative movement. Freeloaders were gaming the system by taking advantage of hospitals that had to treat them, so the story goes. We should mandate that they pay for insurance, so the theory went. But there was the conflict. You can't Mandate health insurance coverage, and at the same time, allow insurers to decline coverage for those with pre-existing conditions. Catch-22 at it's finest.
Thus began the initial offensive plan of attack against Obamacare. Can't have one without the other.
Not taking one side or the other, just explaining the Why of it all.
The solution is a national plan that relies on a combination of self-insurance for routine care and coverage for real health issues.
A trip to the doctor for a cold is routine care and should never be submitted to an insurance company.
The days where we could set up an agreed upon health insurance plan are gone. Now we all have to pay for an expensive, one-size-fits-all plan that some bureaucrats think we must have.
Yes, it would be nice to have a low cost plan just in case we needed some serious medical treatment, with a high deductability, and a smaller plan for routine visits, but that is against the law now.
Thus began the initial offensive plan of attack against Obamacare. Can't have one without the other.
Not taking one side or the other, just explaining the Why of it all.
ObamaCare is more then just a piece of legislation that allows people with preexisting conditions to get health care. We could have added legislation to address preexisting conditions, because both republican and democrats wanted to address this. But ObamaCare was a disaster in the making, and will become more of a disaster as time goes on.
The days where we could set up an agreed upon health insurance plan are gone. Now we all have to pay for an expensive, one-size-fits-all plan that some bureaucrats think we must have.
Yes, it would be nice to have a low cost plan just in case we needed some serious medical treatment, with a high deductability, and a smaller plan for routine visits.
High-deductible plans are available now. I work in a pediatric office. We get many calls from people with such plans, wanting the dr. to prescribe medications, order labwork, etc w/o a patient visit, b/c their ins. doesn't cover routine care. They want to have their cake and eat it, too.
There is a fear that the Obamacare penalty is small, so that it could encourage some people to go without insurance and then suddenly join when a problem arises.
Likewise, if we applied this rule to home insurance...many would drop their home insurance - would they not? Pay a smaller fee not to have it, then make a phone call and buy home insurance as your house is a smoldering pile of ashes so it can get rebuilt.
Glad you brought this up, as I neglected to mention it at all. This was a driving force behind the mandated coverage. The health insurance industry fought very hard to make sure the Mandate was in any law. It was only fair to have the Mandate when the pre existing coverage acceptance was also mandated. It's a necessary evil for both sides.
But you bring up a very important topic. The Penalty.
I'm not sure how the penalty is a deterrent to anything really, given the cost of insurance.
Let's say a plan would cost me $7,500 a year. How is me paying a penalty instead helping anything, but me?
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