Night Strike wrote: GreecePwns wrote:f*ck you people with preexisting conditions! Now give me your money!
See, that's the thing, if you are paying premiums for insurance but then the insurance company drops you when you need coverage, then that company should be held accountable by the government (because enforcing contracts is a proper role of the government).
Nope, its about having a gap in insurance.
A few years ago, a law WAS passed forcing companies to continue to cover people who had kept their insurance without a gap. This was supposed to protect people from getting dumped when they got sick. However, have a gap of even 24 hours (though usually the gap will be a month or more... there is no such time limit specified) and the insurance company did not have to cover you AT ALL. No breach of contract was involved, this was fully legal. If you saw a doctor, then lost insurance -- then you were no longer insurable because you almost always had some or other "pre-existing condition". No lying was needed.
Night Strike wrote: However, if a person knowingly lies about a pre-existing condition that the company, or that specific policy, doesn't cover, then the insurance is within their rights to deny coverage (because the contract was agreed to on false pretenses).
The insurance company's have abused that bit about "lying" quite a bit. The companies were allowed to go back and "investigate" people and "find" obscure minor issues that might have been neglected. Most people are not doctors, don't remember each and every little thing that happened in their entire life. We remember surgaries, major illnesses, but not every last stitch or minor illness. So, insurance companies give you this form to fill out, where you are supposed to list everything.. so detailed that even when you get your doctor's assistance, it is very much STILL possible to miss a couple of small details.... and I DO mean "small details", not major issues. THAT is what the insurance companies began using to deny coverage. Of course, these "reviews" were strangely cooincidental with impending serious illnesses or injuries. So, if you were basically healthy -- no review. If, however, you got cancer... your records were reviewed with a fine-toothed comb.
Of course, there are plenty of people who really do commit insurance fraud. BUT, there are far more honest people who wind up losing their life savings just to fight for coverage they thought they had.
Night Strike wrote: And don't forget, Obamacare doesn't allow insurance companies to charge people different rates based on their lifestyles or pre-existing conditions. That means that ALL people have to pay more simply because the insurance companies can't charge more to the people who are more likely to use more.
You keep ignoring that we ALREADY pay more.. we pay for covering those without insurance or who think they have insurance and who then get dumped because of "pre-existing conditions" right when they need to use the insurance.
Again-- you keep pretending that our current system is cheap. In fact, we pay more, per person, than in any other industrialized nation. We plain and simply cannot afford to keep on with things as they were!