Care vs Insurance

Here's a comment I recently made on the blog Cafe Hayek in response to this question (made by another commenter):

"So what do Americans propose to do for people who have a pre-existing condition and cannot afford health insurance." [sic]


I don't think you're framing the question correctly. It should read, "So what do Americans propose to do for people who have a pre-existing condition and cannot afford the health care services needed to alleviate the problems caused by said pre-existing condition?"

I don't know the answer. But I think it is very important use the correct language. Care, not insurance.

Consumers with pre-existing conditions are probably not priced out of the market because of their own lack of funds, but much more because there is no market to accomodate them. Why? Because there is no risk! Just like you will never find a fire insurance underwriter who will write a burning building, you will never find a health insurance underwriter who will write a person with a pre-existing condition. That's because doing so would defeat the very nature of the product.


Treating people with costly, long-term medical ailments is a serious predicament for our country. Some private/public plan (HSAs + a shorter-term, slimmed down Medicare/Medicaid style contingency option?) is probably the way to go. But insurance companies are the LAST entity that should be looked out for dealing with this issue.