Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion
In a time of the spring, old paths are obscured and new growth begins.
Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit DiscussionIn a time of the spring, old paths are obscured and new growth begins.
Had cancer? Got multiple sclerosis? How about diabetes?
If you’ve had any medical troubles in the past, and we get a Republican elected President in 2008, then you’re out of luck. People with pre-existing conditions just wouldn’t be covered under the health care plans proposed by the top Republican presidential candidates.
“People with preexisting conditions would not be able to get coverage or would not be able to afford it,” says economist Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Institute. “Unless it’s in a state that has very strong consumer protections, they would likely be denied coverage.”
The reason? The Republicans talk about expanding health care coverage by private health care insurance companies, pumping government money into these for-profit corporations. However, the Republicans don’t want to require the health insurance companies to make any concessions in return for all of that money. The health insurance companies will still get to reject whatever kind of people they want, and would also be free to deny people coverage even when people were covered by insurance, if they wanted to.
So, the kind of expanded health insurance offered by the Republican presidential candidates seems to be health insurance that doesn’t actually provide for most people’s health. I don’t get it. How does this help?
(Source: Los Angeles Times, November 20, 2007)
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December 9th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
That’s absurd. The whole idea of group insurance is to have a large enough number of people insured to be able to afford to cover those with more serious conditions.
The other advantage to a national group coverage is to put corporations offering health insurance on a more even playing field with companies like Walmart that tell their employees to apply for medicaid. It would be a step to re-establishing that middle class John Edwards keeps harping about.