Posted on 09/19/2009 1:08:17 PM PDT by STARWISE
A proposal to make preexisting health conditions irrelevant in the sale of insurance policies could help not just the seriously ill but also people who might consider themselves healthy, documents released Friday by a California-based advocacy group illustrate.
Health insurers have issued guidelines saying they could deny coverage to people suffering from such conditions as acne, hemorrhoids and bunions.
One big insurer refused to issue individual policies to police officers and firefighters, along with people in other hazardous occupations.
Some treated pregnancy or the intention to adopt as a reason for rejection.
*snip*
Kristin E. Binns, a spokeswoman for parent company WellPoint, said by e-mail that she could not comment on the guidelines because they are from years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
~~PING!
It’s not hard to find insurance companies that will disqualify for this or that reason.
But remember, an insurance company is a business. If they make it their practice to disqualify essentially all of their customer base, they won’t stay in business long.
Would having acne disqualify a woman from having an abortion on the Obama plan?
When I was morbidly obese the insurance company wanted almosts $1,000/month for insurance. I had obesity surgery (paid cash myself) and lost 130 lbs. Now they won’t cover me because I had the surgery. Yes, I understand they are a busines, but I’m healthier than I’ve ever been and they won’t touch me...??????
These are businesses who have to underwrite risk and collect payments sufficient to cover those risks.
I’m sure some idiot government passed laws forbidding the insurers from charging extra for some things, so instead they have to refuse coverage to people who otherwise would cost the rest of us money.
Just like a homeowners insurance company might pull out of a state if that state requires them to cover things without allowing them to charge appropriately.
We certainly don’t need to overhaul the entire health care system just to handle little problems like this. If some state really wants to force a private business to cover police at no additional charge as a cost of doing business, they can pass a law, and if the insurers don’t like it, they can simply stop writing insurance in that state.
God forbid we get to the point in this country when government can force a private business to stay in existance, and dictate to that business who they have to serve and how much they can charge.
“Is it true, or are they pushing Obamacare?”
I’ve heard the acne thing before, and seem to recall it having something to do with the person not declaring their dermatologist said he/she was at risk for skin cancer. Whatever it was, it wasn’t that a doctor discovered hidden pimples on the patient’s back and reported it to the greedy insurance company, who licked its lips and kicked them out.
No.
NOTHING would disqualify a woman from having an abortion on the Obama plan.
” documents released Friday by a California-based advocacy group illustrate.’
That’s all you need to know right there.
“If they make it their practice to disqualify essentially all of their customer base, they won’t stay in business long.”
That’s not the issue; not a one has done that.
Kind of a catch-22, the pharmaceutical companies want everyone to be on at least one maintenance med....
IMAGINE the WaPo shilling for HusseinCare!! Whoda thunk it!
How many companies and health insurance plans are offered in your state?
If the needs of some consumers are not being met, the place to address that lack of business competition- is within your state. Don’t most states has insurance plan ools for high risk driver to obtain auto insurance? Why not for helath insuarn ce,too. That way the companies have to spread the risks and costs, and maybe share it with the state.
The answer is NOT from Obamacare. Go spend an afternoon sitting in a VA hospital and think of that atmosphere magnified 1000 fold.
yet, while applying for a life-insurance policy, a young man was denied insurance because he had a medical condition which increased his risk of cerebral hemorrhage to twice what the average individual, while accepting people HIV/AIDS. I’m curious to know how many of those people with that disease have since died while the young man, now 12 years older, has not.
The net result is in a few years people will pay more for their bad habits and less for their good ones thus transferring the costs where they belong and ending a free-rider problem imposed by government fiat and populist pols.
Is “illustrate” the same as saying, “prove a point we wanted to make, but don’t have the facts for”?
They are lying. This is a lie that Bozo told so of course they have to keep repeating it.
I hope they do this with auto, disability and life insurance too. I hate these monthly premiums. It would be so much better if I could just go out and buy it just when I need it.
Can the government fix it so I only have to bet at the casinos on the hands I'm going to win. Because having to bet on all the hands really sucks.
You are aware that insurance is a product that you aren't required to purchase and that to the extent that your options are limited, they are so limited because of your state government. Right?
When my daughter-in-law told me the cost of my last grandchild, my mouth dropped, and that doesn't happen very often...
Wait, what would have happened in the case of a premature birth?
LOL! You shouldn’t drink and post.
Don't know, mine was not premature. But he was small only 5 pounds 14 oz...
That was not a post of a sober conservative, especially in these times.
I think law suits are responsible for doctors charges going up because they have to carry more insurance themselves...But hospital charges have seemed a bit excessive but then as you say, there is much improvement in what services hospital offer...
But we have all heard of the 60 dollar aspirin in the hospital...I was a nurse and worked in the hospital for 10 years before becoming a goat herder..(that sure does sound strange) but thats why I retired..
City hospitals took the uninsured and now I think the government mandates every hospital has to...so there is much (dead wood) that the insurance companies have to pay for..that ups everyone's premiums..
I am not trying to stick up for the hospitals or insurance companies, but government meddling is what screwed up much of the problems we see today..They started big time in the 70's determining what a doctor must charge for a procedure.
For instance: I was talking with one of our gastroenterologist and asked him how things were working out....This was his answer:
I charge $250.00 for a gastrostopy, the government says it will pay 80% of the charge and the cost was 350.00. The remaining 20% to be paid by the patient...Most doctors would tell you that they would take whatever the insurance would pay, BECAUSE the price the government put on the services allowed were much higher than the average doctor already charged. 80% of the higher charges were a raise for the doctors...
80% of $350.00 was $274.00. The doctor only charged 250 before the government came in an dictated to them.. Hope this is not too complicated. I sometimes describe something a bit garbled..
My wife is an EM M.D., so I’m well versed in exactly what the government has done to destroy health care.
Yep the government is a pip isn’t it.....They screw it up and then come in to fix it......
“The insurance industry is evil incarnate. I truly believe the people working in the industry are either agents of Satan or stupid greedy fools.
I can only hope their spot in hell reflects the pain and suffering they have inflicted on so many.. “
Your comments on the evil incarnates is needed over here:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2345528/posts
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