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I know a family that went bankrupt due to lack of insurance.
They should have planned better.
A few posts ago said "everyone will be sick at some point".
I have health insurance, life insurance, flood insurance, home owners insurance, auto insurance, sewage line insurance....inside and outside and disability insurance as well as Aflac, which will pay my bills in case im unable to work. It's not cheap, but I realize the importance of having it. I could have another $2000 a month to spend if I let all insurance lapse.
right, which makes it unsuitable as a health care delivery system.
the question is: why do we continue to allow the insurance industry into our health care system ?
Because I should be allowed to insure anything I want. If Jennifer Lopez believes her bottom is such an important part of her livelihood that she needs to insure against its' loss or damage, and if an insurance company is willing to write that $300 million policy, then no one should be able to interfere. Same is true for illnesses. If I want to insure against the risk of needing blood transfusions and dialysis, and a company is willing to write the policy, that's fine. I don't have diabetes or any indications that I will develop it, so I can probably get that policy at a fairly low rate. But if someone else who HAS diabetes already wants that same policy, they are either going to have difficulty finding an insurer willing to provide it, or it's going to cost significantly more than it does for me. Insurance is all about managed risk, so no company should be FORCED to insure against a risk that is GUARANTEED. Some people can use insurance as a way to manage their risk of getting sick & needing to pay for medical care. Other people are already sick & need to find a way to pay for their care. If the costs are too high, that's an issue for the health care industry, not the health insurance industry.
A few posts ago said "everyone will be sick at some point".
I have health insurance, life insurance, flood insurance, home owners insurance, auto insurance, sewage line insurance....inside and outside and disability insurance as well as Aflac, which will pay my bills in case im unable to work. It's not cheap, but I realize the importance of having it. I could have another $2000 a month to spend if I let all insurance lapse.
No excuses.
It's very possible for someone not to have health insurance right now. Namely, they can't afford it.
Some people seem to have a very strange view of what insurance companies do. They point to the problem of people who have a pre-existing condition, trying to sign up for new insurance, only to find the insurance companies won't pay for the the treatment for that pre-existing condition.
Of course they won't. That's not what insurance companies do. Whoever said they did?
Insurance is a gambling game where you bet on what will happen in the future. You "bet" that you will get sick or injured, and the company "bets" that you won't. If you get sick or injured, the company pays you the stipulated amount (paying for a portion of your medical treatment etc.), and if you don't, you pay them (premiums). The purpose is to shield you from the "shock" of suddenly and unexpectedly getting hit with huge medical bills... which is why you agreed to the contract.
A pre-existing condition cannot be insured against. It's like betting on the outcome of a horse race that's already been run - there is no "chance" involved, and no "unexpectedness" to the outcome (any more). Or like trying to get car insurance after wrecking your car.
Insurance companies are in the business of selling security - the assurance that you won't be suddenly bankrupted by huge medical bills, rehab bills etc. in the future. They do it by insuring huge numbers of people and getting them to each pay relatively small amounts (their premiums) each. They and their clients all know that most of them will never incur the huge medical bills they are worried about. But since no one knows which few people WILL incur them, they are all happy to pay the premiums, for the knowledge they won't have to pay the huge amounts if they turn out to be the unlucky ones.
Insurance companies sell safety from FUTURE possible disasters. And that's all they sell. Asking them to cover pre-existing conditions, is like asking a submarine designer to design a supersonic jet - it's got nothing to do with his business or his area of expertise, and he never volunteered to design jets in the first place, for good reason.
If you want to set up some kind of universal pool to pay for pre-existing conditions, fine, go ahead. But why drag insurance companies into it? It's got nothing to do with their areas of expertise, and they never volunteered to do it in the first place - for good reason.
Quote:
The purpose is to shield you from the "shock" of suddenly and unexpectedly getting hit with huge medical bills
You "bet" that you will get sick or injured, and the company "bets" that you won't.
That may be supplemental catastophic health insurance you're thinking of, but what most people have is HMO or PPO...Health maintenance type of insurance. We, as Humans, sometimes get sick and need medical attention.
How old are they now? How have their health care costs been paid until now?
I will ask this again; why should an insurance company be forced to accept a client with a preexisting condition, when the existence of that condition is guaranteed to make the company lose money above & beyond what it will collect in premiums from that client?
My scenario is young people who have been covered by their parents who now have to purchase their own insurance.
Your scenario would have them somehow now pay out of pocket for all of their maintenance drugs, office and ER visits, lab tests, etc.
Insurance is the guarantee of payment in the event a specific event occurs, which it may or may not, in return for a smaller payment in advance and regardless of whether the event occurs or not. If a person has the condition already they don't need insurance, they need health care. I would never deny health care to anyone.
Think about this logically. If the care for the illness costs $10,000 how much will the insurance cost? If it's more than $10,000, there's no reason for the person with the illness to pay it. If the cost of the insurance is less than $10,000, the company loses money. How long can it survive? Why would anyone expect this to be the way things operate?
How do they get this health care?
Seriously.
And, your example presupposes that the only people in this pool are people with pre-existing conditions. Is that how car insurance works? Home insurance?
Does everyone in the pool file a claim?
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