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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (76581)	10/11/2004 5:47:54 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793789

One thing about the federal health plan -- there is no requirement that people with pre-existing conditions wait for coverage. They get around it in part by limiting the conditions under which you can change coverage to open seasons and certain life events. You can get low option coverage, for example, which is a semi-free-rider but if you get really sick, you're stuck with it until the next open season a year away. You can change to family coverage from single coverage when you get married. You can't just wait until pregnancy and then switch expecting the pregnancy to be covered. The open-season approach can mitigate the free-rider problem. I think that part of the solution is to offer more insurance-like programs. By that I mean a catastrophic coverage approach, which is part of the Bush proposal. This would discourage free riders because it would be the smart move for the healthy participant and its costs would be very manageable because it would follow a known actuarial model.