I must give credit for this post to my daughter. She informed me that insurance is only applicable to life events that you don't want to happen. Things like death and car wrecks. But Health Care is something that you want to happen - you don't want to die and you will enjoy life more when you feel healthy. You want the best Healthcare that you can get.
So how can Healthcare be insured? It can't. It is only possible to insure losses that you would be better off if you had avoided them. Insurance, when properly applied, mitigates a loss it doesn't fully compensate.
A basic tenet of insurance is that the insured also loses. Hence deductables, or loss of life, or reimbursement for a portion of an item's value. Sure you read and hear about people who are desperate for cash and commit fraud by intentionally destroying insured property but if they were properly insured they would have been better off selling the item. And if they get caught committing insurance fraud they will be subject to criminal not civil prosecution.
So when it comes to preexisting conditions, why would you expect an insurance company to handle them any other way than the way they handle you car insurance? Can you put off buying collision until after your car is wrecked and expect the insurer to repair it? Heck no.
Since when would an insurance company take on a high risk? If you have a history of speeding and DUI would you expect an insurance company to insure you for auto liability? Heck no.
So why would you expect anything different from an insurance provider for your Healthcare? The fundamentals of the industry are aimed at avoiding or reducing risk of pay out.
But Healthcare is something you must have. Healthcare is something you want to have. We are entitled to Healthcare. It is not an infrequent calamity. It is something you will need at many points in your life.
So now we are going to have a law that requires us to purchase Health Insurance? I say never. Healthcare is uninsurable. Our current system uses 30% of your Healthcare dollar for insurance company costs and profits. And insurance companies should never be involved with your Health Care. Because their best interests are directly counter to your best interests. You want and need Healthcare and they benefit by denying you Healthcare. With life insurance both the insured and the insurer benefit when the insured lives.
I am convinced that single payer is the only viable solution. The best way to improve Healthcare is to remove insurance completely. Making insurance mandatory is a ridiculous proposition.