Dan Ferris on Obama's absurd credit-card regulations

The Daily Crux ^

[sdw2009]

And Obama saith unto you, "Insurance companies will be prohibited from denying insurance coverage based on a pre-existing medical condition. Period."

And there was a health care famine in the land...

[pnh102]

I keep hearing about how the Swiss system supposedly bans denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions but that they supposedly have a great private system. Is this BS or does it actually work?

I can't blame health insurers for rejecting such claims because if they didn't everyone would just buy health insurance when they were sick and then at no other time. Health insurers need to have a pool of healthy customers in order to have the money to pay out the claims of the unhealthy people.

[DonaldC]

I actually agree with some of 0’s reform ideas. For example, pre-existing condition coverage. We all have pre-existing conditions but most of us don’t know what they are yet. I also would like to see coverage unhinged from employment. The only reason to keep it there is for pricing, just make the membership pool the county or state or something, just like car insurance is. There was a third reform idea he had, but I don’t recall what is was.

[steve-b]

What a crock. The credit card industry has brought this on itself by its habitual dishonest "gotcha" tricks (e.g. imposing arbitrary delays on crediting card payments while instantly applying card debits so that a card "goes over" even though the payments were in fact made in time to cover the debits).

A free-market system means the ability of buyers and sellers to make their own agreements with both parties upholding them honestly and in good faith. It is not a license to steal and cheat -- and when businesses treat is as one, they sow the seeds of socialism, because people won't put up with that crap indefinitely and will demand the most obvious way to put a stop to it.

[ChocChipCookie]

When we applied for private health insurance a decade or so ago, there was an incredibly long list of ailments for us to check off if we had had them in the last, I forget how many years. There were things like ear aches, allergies, foot problems, not just serious diseases like cancer. Our insurance agent told us that if we checked off more than three, it was an automatic denial. Now, how many 30- or 40-somethings do you know have NEVER been sick, have NEVER had a health issue??

There definitely are problems with our health insurance system, but this plan really doesn’t address those. It’s all about putting the federal government into nearly every aspect of our lives.

[steve-b]

This is another example of the same principle. Insurance companies get caught again and again nitpicking through the list of irrelevant and trivial "preexisting conditions" as an excuse to bail on their end of the bargain when a customer gets seriously (and expensively) ill.

If the government ends up taking over the health care system, the lion's share of the blame will rest with the crooks who came up with that idea.

[DonaldC]

“There definitely are problems with our health insurance system, but this plan really doesn’t address those. It’s all about putting the federal government into nearly every aspect of our lives.”

Unfortunately, I think your right.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I knew a guy once who had had a kidney transplant and then lost his job. His medication and ongoing treatment were very expensive, and he found that no other insurance company was willing to cover them. Situations like his where someone falls completely thru the cracks is what needs to be addressed....not free coverage for tens of millions of illegals.

[PeterPrinciple]

It’s all about putting the federal government into nearly every aspect of our lives.”

---

I went into my barber this morning and told him of OBamas plan of the day which was govt subsidized haircuts. Asked if he was participating. He had to think for a moment.

We should ask every business we go into if they are giving away free govt subsidized stuff just to make a point of how ridiculous it is.

[angkor]

>>>> The credit card industry has brought this on itself by its habitual dishonest “gotcha” tricks <<<<<

Years ago MBNA had the fine print that “unapproved envelopes” would be subject to “delayed processing” and indeed I was dinged for late fees once or twice before I realized what was going on.

And “unapproved envelope” was *anything* other than the envelope included with the monthly bill.

I cancelled that card post haste.

Years later I received a class action settlement payment from MBNA for that kind of outrageous BS.

[DonaldC]

I agree, free stuff is not the answer. Everybody can pay something. I think Obama was on the right track with some of his reform ideas early on, but it is clear that reform is not the end game. If the medical stakeholders could address some of them, I think that would drain the rest of the wind from the sails of the socialized medicine idea. Course, there are an awful lot of “free services” voters out there. I have often thought there was wisdom in the early days of the country when land ownership was required in order to vote, cause if you own something and realize the work in getting it, you’re much less likely to go for socialism.

[Publius6961]

And Obama saith unto you, "Insurance companies will be prohibited from denying insurance coverage based on a pre-existing medical condition. Period." And there was a health care famine in the land...

I don't particularly enjoy calling Obama an idiot, it's more a "progressive" thing, but you'd think with his advanced education he could have a clue about what "insurance" means.

As soon as risk is ignored, it becomes simply welfare in another form.

Insurance it's not.

It all started when the perverts wanted their diseased "lifestyle," and healthcare too. Everybody's rates, group and private skyrocketed.

But government can print free money and there are no consequences, so what the hell...