Health Insurance for Pre-Existing Condition is An Oxymoron

That's why it's been such an unconscionable power grab by Deemocrats that have no interest in fair hearings, fixing problems, or even bi-partisanship whenever they can get away with not having any of it!!!

My only hope at this point is that this whole abortion of a poorly concocted power-grab will blow up in their collective faces and cause such a disasterous disturbance in America's economic way of life that they will all be forced to eat a steady diet of CROW for the next hundred years!!!

America now has such a truly malignant constitutional problem on it's hands that even makes it possible that the culprits will get away with hurting everyone without punishment. Just like they did with the Carter Affordable Communities Act, the sub-prime market it spawned and the stupid repeal of the Glas-Steagle Act during Clinton, etc., etc., etc!!!

Since insurers avoid insuring even healthy people who have pre-existing conditions

Talk about simple minded. Healthy people don't have pre-existing conditions. If you have a 'condition', you aren't healthy.

1) HSAs are a form of health self-insurance. And they don't carry the same burden of administrative charges as an insurance policy. And they are available to all.

2) It's called charity care when you get hammered. And yes, for folks who wait until they have a condition to look for insurance, charity is where they end up when things go wrong.

3) "Employer provided health insurance is tax deductible, so such insurance tends to get loaded up with routine health care costs." This is just plain wrong as a flat statement, the question of paying for routine costs and whether or not it's employer provided insurance are two totally separate things. Employer provided HMOs (which were required to be offered by the Government) see this effect. Employer supplied HSAs do not have this effect. Not does any other employer supplied health plan where they don't pay the first dollar. When the insuree pays something for routine care, they use less of it as they do consider the financial tradeoffs when it's out-of-pocket money.

3.1) Any health plan should have the same tax deductions as employer plans, by the way.

4) agree

5) agree

The problem of insurance subsidies and special pools runs into the HMO problem. The subsidies tend to give first dollar coverage and that generates too much load and cost. The high-risk pools are high cost, and so folks don't join until they need help; and then the high risk pool quickly goes broke because it isn't really insurance.

Let's be conservative here, and support saving (HSA) and personal life management first. And then recognize charity for with it is, and not turn it into an entitlement for the high-risk crowd. And we need to recognize that charity is best handled by the private economy.

(1) Many ailments that are limited and controllable through treatment nevertheless result in a denial of health insurance. In addition, about 2 million Americans have celiac disease, which is also a standard disqualifying pre-existing condition. Since celiac disease is genetically driven, it is usually less a matter of getting it than of discovering that one has had it for years.

Celiac disease is readily treated through the strict exclusion of the gluten found in wheat, rye, and barley. If that is done, celiac disease becomes asymptomatic and those who have it are considered healthy, except for any secondary conditions that they may have developed.

Since dietary compliance can be monitored through antibody testing and secondary ailments can be screened, why the exclusion from health insurance? Insurers do not explain the calculus behind those decisions. Plausibly, celiac disease may be useful as a means to withdraw coverage if it is discovered during the course of treatment for a more serious and expensive condition.

(2) HSAs are widely but not universally available. They can be used to pay for a wide range of heath care services and for high deductible health insurance. But not everyone can qualify for even high deductible health insurance, and with only a little over $3,000 as the maximum individual annual contribution and a yearly zero out requirement, HSA dollars do not go far in a major crisis.

(3) The premise of 'charity care' is that you are or become depleted of cash and the ability to raise cash. In many instances, the inability to obtain heath insurance is the beginning of eventual financial ruin. In such cases, high deductible insurance risk pools could help reduce the problem of people dropping out of the workforce to pursue a social security disability rating and Medicaid coverage.

(4) In practice, insurers create and administer most employer HMOs and employees take no heed of the distinction between insurance and and an insurer administered HMO.

(5) Expanded HSAs are to the good, especially if the terms are enhanced for those who are denied heath insurance. Adding risk pools with high deductible policies makes sense as well. So does eliminating most mandated coverages, ending the antitrust exclusion, letting health insurers operate across state lines, and requiring the open posting of prices for medical services.

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