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About being rejected from buying my own health insurance, based on a surgery I'd had, I think that the question of whether it's "smart" or "dumb" for insurers t
by Frondo 10y ago
About being rejected from buying my own health insurance, based on a surgery I'd had, I think that the question of whether it's "smart" or "dumb" for insurers to do so is irrelevant.
Especially in a modern society, that decision-making process is no more relevant than asking whether it's OK to dump toxic waste into the river, because the fines could be cheaper than processing such waste safely.
- harryh 10y agoPrivate companies refusing to sell insurance to someone where they will lose money on the transaction is not at all like dumping toxic waste into a river. If insurance companies can't make money (or at least break even) for a certain population then they are't a viable means of making sure care is payed for, and we need to develop alternate policies to make things work. So it's actually very very relevant to understand the decision-making process of insurance companies in these situations.
- AnimalMuppet 10y agoTrue, but Frondo also has a point. If insurance companies can cherry-pick individuals and refuse to sell to specific individuals where the insurance company is more likely to lose money, that's... not good. It kind of defeats the point of insurance, in fact. If Obamacare-as-a-block is business they don't want, they shouldn't have to take it. If it's a subset of individuals, I'm less sympathetic.
- harryh 10y agoIndeed. Obamacare-as-a-block was specifically designed to try to eliminate this cherry picking of individuals. But it's turning out that the solution might not be adequate because insurance companies are choosing to just abandon the whole block. That's what I meant with my "closely related" comment above. And if the Obamacare exchanges don't work, that's no good either! As I said elsewhere, the economics of health care are very challenging.
- Frondo 10y agoThis is a discussion the rest of the western world has had and solved in various ways over the last fifty years. The economics of health care isn't a new mystery the world has never before seen, for us to unravel here, it's a matter of policy where we're just lagging behind the rest of the west. That's why I find these questions irrelevant.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]