>This is also why it makes absolutely not sense to expect 'health insurance' to cover pre-existing conditions - it's not insurance if you know you already need

>This is also why it makes absolutely not sense to expect 'health insurance' to cover pre-existing conditions - it's not insurance if you know you already need it when you buy it! Eh, not really. If I'm in remission from cancer, I'm not actually sick right now, but I've got a pre-existing condition because the cancer might recur. If I've got hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, I don't necessarily need any medical treatment now, but I'm at elevated risk of developing atrial fibrillation or suffering a stroke in the future. The way health insurers treat "pre-existing conditions" is mostly about improving the profitability of their risk pools rather than protecting themselves from people who buy insurance after the fact. They use a plausible-sounding pretext to avoid having to insure people who might actually claim on their policy. It's one thing to exclude a specific chronic condition from coverage, but it's quite another to refuse to insure people altogether simply because they've had health issues in the past. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/18/AR2009091803501.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09...