the entire insurance industry has already factored in the occurrance of ‘conditions’ - including the average age those conditions may occur in a fluid and everchanging policyholder base. This risk is calculated by armies of actuaries. The only way the insurance company/industry loses is if the number of policyholders falls substantially, or there is a stagnant, aging, group with no younger members joining the group - not likely in an ever-increasing population.
The person has a valid point. The *average* person changes jobs at least 6 times. That’s 6 times that they risk losing their continuous coverage. Thus, losing their insurance for a pre-existing condition.
Most people will acquire disease at some point in their lives that requires modern medicine to mediate.
I agree with the OP that we’re not talking about insurance anymore. The basic concept is flawed.
We’re talking about how to deal with chronically sick people. People who, with medical support, are well enough to work and not sick enough to qualify for disability. The ‘walking sick’ as it were.
And what do we do with sick kids? With people who did nothing wrong but who still had to fight cancer, live with diabetes, autoimmune diseases, anemia, birth defects, etc?
Again, I’m not talking about those who are 100% disabled. I’m talking about those who’re well enough to work.
Let’s say we have a diabetic child who’s parents are poor. The child has CHIP until they’re 18. Then they’re thrown off health insurance. Get a job? What job? Without college this kid will be flipping burgers of forced into manual labor that their body will not be able to handle for long.
If they go for the manual labor job, it takes months (up to a year) of full-time work for insurance to kick in. They’re broke. How do they pay for health insurance to keep ‘continuous coverage’ throughout that time?
This kid desperately needs college more than most so they can get the good job with benefits and survive on their own. But they can’t survive the four years of college without medical care.
We are at a devastating point where science has developed well enough to keep people alive who, throughout all of human history, would’ve been dead. But science hasn’t developed to the point where it can actually ‘cure’ most of these diseases. Diagnose, treat, manage... yes. But not fix.
As a result, we have more ‘walking sick’ than ever before.
And we have no idea how to handle it.
The liberal’s idea is to put the unfortunate ones down. It’s cheaper that way.
Conservatives want to support and promote all life, but offer no suggestions on how to deal with this very real problem.