Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (8270)	8/14/2009 3:24:24 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

any insurance that you buy after that won't fix your already mashed fender An important point. The pre-existing condition isn't the damage already done but the underlying defect that caused the damage and may cause future damage. That isn't totally true. A lot of "pre-existing conditions" represent "damage already done". If you already have cancer, a bad hip, or many other conditions, there is something wrong with you already, and health insurance would generally be expected to pay for the treatment of that condition. Also consider if you damage your car because you caused an accident, or if you live in a flood prone area, your insurance costs would tend to be higher. (Well maybe not as much the latter because its a subsidized federal program, but if it was a market based private program the insurance would either be unavailable or very expensive.)

To: Lane3 who wrote (8270)	8/14/2009 3:42:19 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

If your home is on the water and your home is damaged by rising water, you can get flood insurance. It won't pay to fix the damage caused by the flood but it will pay for damage from the next flood despite the pre-existing condition that you live on the water. This is an area where some pretty significant changes are needed in the current system. While I don't believe government should be in the health insurance business, there needs to be some way that a person who has preexisting conditions can insured at reasonable cost. Similarly, there is something wrong in my mind with health insurance being like car insurance -- i.e., that your premiums go up as your cost to the insurer goes up. It is one thing for a bad driver to have to pay more for his insurance, but quite a different thing for a sick person to have to pay 5x what a well person has to pay for insurance coverage. There must be some way to regulate the health insurance business so that chronically ill people do not have to pay premiums that are proportional to their insurance cost. It really defeats the purpose of the insurance otherwise -- instead of insurance, it is more like long-term financing for one's health care, e.g., UHC pays my claims, then I repay them in the form of increased premiums for the next decade.