Pre-Existing Conditions

E-mail to Congress:
The health insurance companies have gotten a bad rap on the matter of "pre-existing conditions". With the almost universal complaint that health insurance companies do not cover pre-existing conditions, there seems to be no general understanding of what a pre-existing condition is and its relationship to insurance in general.


However, WikiAnswers has defined the situation as follows, "Medical insurance works the same way other insurances do- that medical insurance is to protect yourself in case something bad happens. You need to have coverage in place before something bad happens. An analogy is that just like you can't buy auto insurance after an accident to cover the cost of the accident, medical insurance only covers issues that arise unexpectedly after coverage has begun."

Notice the logic involved. However when healthcare is discussed, all manifestations of emotion related to anecdotal situations become involved. None of that really makes sense from a financial point of view.

Diabetics have a shorter life span than nondiabetics. Should life insurance companies not consider that a diabetic will have a shorter time to pay his insurance premiums and therefore pay less over his lifespan than a non-diabetic? If so, does that not penalize non-diabetics?

Assume another case, where a person has been smoking two packs of cigarettes for 30 years. He is now wheezing, has a slight pain in his chest and plans to see a doctor for the first time next week. However today, he is at my office applying for medical insurance. He has no pre-existing condition and presumably is not required to give me a record of his smoking activities. Must I insure him on the basis that I can't ask any questions or have him examined now by a medical doctor?

Take another example outside of the medical field. Let's say I have had five collision accidents in the past two years. My insurance company wants to drop me as a bad risk. Are they not entitled to do so? Let's also say that they have dropped me and I am now applying for insurance to a new company. Are they not entitled to know about my driving history and accident record? These are pre-existing conditions and by the same emotional atmosphere applied to health insurance, I should not be denied insurance by the new automotive insurance company.

It is obvious that denying insurance companies the right to consider pre-existing conditions is ridiculous. It's not only bad for the insurance companies. It's bad for more responsible members of society. It's also bad for the leeches in that it encourages them to not accept personal responsibility for their own actions. Collectively, it's bad for society.

May I strongly suggest that in any healthcare insurance legislation that you may consider, you do not make it mandatory for insurance companies to ignore pre-existing conditions.