Originally Posted by davidra:
Might not have been you, but it has been frequently pointed out that if left to their own devices, some might not choose to sign up...until they needed to. As Obama stated, that isn't fair to everyone else, especially when those folks get sick without coverage.
Some people have mentioned (not sure it if was here or in some article) that eliminating pre-existing condition requirements would enable people to simply sign up when they find out something is wrong with them, get treatment paid for, and then drop off again.
Requiring everyone to carry insurance would eliminate that possibility, but I'm not too keen on government telling me how I have to spend my own money (outside of them doing what they want with tax money I pay).
As you may recall, my concept for dealing with pre-existing conditions was to eliminate barriers to getting insurance due to a pre-existing condition, but applying a narrow (only to the specific pre-existing condition) additional co-pay (it has to be reasonable and fair to both sides) for subsequent treatment of that condition--if it ever comes up. That's just one idea of course, but the goal I had in mind was to alleviate the customer from the burden of higher premiums--forever, because of something that may or may not ever happen again. It would also eliminate the problem of disqualifying someone just because they've had a medical problem at some point in their life.
KAM