Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Pre exiting conditions? Hi risk pool for you.

Once you get sick, the health insurers want to dump you. Insurers make money by depositing premiums paid by well people (or well people's employers). They loose money paying doctor and hospital bills. Dropping sick people, or refusing to insure sick people, does good things for insurance company profits.
More fair would be a law requiring insurance companies to sell their policies to all comers at the same price. The sick people are not responsible for their illness, they are unlucky. They encountered a virus, a microbe, a bullet, or some dangerous machinery. Or they inherited a genetic weakness, also a matter of luck. We, as a society, ought to give the unlucky sick people the same shot at health care as the lucky, and well, majority. Insurance is supposed to share the risk, the majority who do not have losses pay for the minority who do.
The insurance companies will oppose this law. Harry and Louse will make a TV come back. Insurers are cherry picking, offering low rates to low risk people to build market share, charging high rates, or refusing to insure, high risk people to keep the low rates low. Most health insurance is company paid insurance, which means the insured is well enough to hold a job, and hence is low risk.
The law ought to require insurers to sell policies to the public at the same price they sell them to big corporations. Employees get a better health deal than the self employed, the small business owners, the professionals, the contractors and consultants. The corporation gets a better price on the insurance, and pays for it with pretax dollars. It's free to the employee. The self employed have to pay more, get no tax break, and pay for it out of pocket.

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