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To: Amy J who wrote (179499)	9/29/2004 11:47:51 AM
From: Robert O	Respond to of 186894

RE: "An individual buying insurance on the open market is going to get a terrible deal with dozens of exclusions based upon the medical history." Consumer laws should be enacted to make it permissible for people to get insurance. ###################### Why? <<Untrue. The #1 killer for women is heart attacks. It kills 10Xs more women than breast cancer. My brother who is a cardiologist has always had many female patients, going way back. >> This from an MD disputes your claim: As a rule, the older you are, the greater your risk of CAD. Until age 30, accidents are the leading cause of death in women. From age 30 to 40, cancer becomes the number one killer of women, with accidental death running second. From age 40 to 60, cancer still leads. By age 60, men and women are at equal risk for heart disease, and by age 65, heart disease becomes the leading cause of death in women.

To: Amy J who wrote (179499)	9/29/2004 3:23:20 PM
From: Saturn V	Respond to of 186894

OT...Medicine and Insurance Issues Let me share my own personal horror story when I bought medical insurance for myself 15 years ago. I shopped around and bought a policy from Blue Shield for the best combination of price and coverage. I had a 3 year exclusion for a non-preexisting condition, ie if no symptoms of this "condition" showed up in the next 3 years, the exclusion was going to be removed. A year later my premium jumped up by more than 100%, and I was given the usual song and dance about inflation in medical costs. I did not shop around and accepted the explanation at face value, since I did not want the exclusion clock to be reset, and I was too busy anyway. Next year the premium tripled again , ie my premium was now up 5 fold in two years, even though neither me or my family had significant medical expenses. Now I shopped around and got a new policy from Blue Cross with no exclusions and at one fourth the price of Blue Shield. How on earth can a free market system explain this ? I was a victim of "pooling" ! The insurance company formed a group of new individual subscribers ( let us assume 100). At the end of the year if the premiums did not cover the costs incurred, the premium of everyone in the group pool was raised to cover the costs. In my case someone in the pool had heavy medical expenses, enormously pushing up the pool premiums. This caused several healthy ones to leave, now dramatically pushing up the premiums of the healthy ones who remained. Luckily my family was healthy and could move freely to a new insurance carrier ! At times I have seen a family excluded from coverage due to the flimsiest of excuses. However with most employer group plans, everyone is entitled to insurance, with no exclusions. For large companies all the employees are treated as a "pool", and the premiums are raised if costs go up. So the employers have a built in incentive to encourage healthy behavior, and to hire healthy employees. You believe that women have been systemically subjected to gender discrimination by the medical profession. Women have done very well in health statistics outliving men by a decade. I could argue tongue in the cheek ad infinitum that men have been subjected to systemic gender discrimination. And I would have tons of statistics to prove my point ! An article in a recent Special Edition of Scientic American on Ageing & Longevity discussed the reasons for Female Longevity. I will summarize the salient points: A. We all know that estrogen protects women from heart disease and stroke, until menopause. So women suffer from cardiovascular problems almost a decade later. B. Women handle stress better than men. Men internalize stress, while women find plenty of outlets for frustration. Stress aggravates cardiovascular problems, diabetes,cancer, and lowers immunity. C. Women seek medical help sooner for perceived health problems. Men are more macho, and will tend to deny that they have a problem. D. Men also indulge in riskier activities. At the end the article bemoaned, "Why cannot a Man be more like a Woman ! ". - With apologies to George Bernard Shaw the author of Pygmalion which was adapted by Broadway into My Fair Lady.