Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Health-Care Contrasts, Pt.5 – Insuring the ‘uninsurable’.

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The real ‘meat’ of this congressional health insurance proposal is also the most difficult to purchase. It should come as no surprise to anyone, although perhaps it should invoke introspect to most, concerning the extreme plight of those who are treated as ‘uninsurable’. Always denied health insurance for being a ‘bad risk’, millions of Americans (perhaps as many as 15 million) are chronic or pre-existing condition victims. Latest US Census data indicates that around 18,000 (22,000 from other reports of earlier years) died last year for lack of health insurance. Over the past 8 years, at least, these people have had little or no hope. They were just dying away. For more on the tragic estate of the ‘denied’ segment, please refer to the article series entitled: “Cambridge Study: Millions of ‘Uninsurables"

On this point, both the Wyden Proposal and the Obama proposal line up. Both are calling for mandates to guarantee that the health insurance industry will accept this segment who, in the past, have always been denied. The current ‘high-risk pool’ to which Mr. McCain seems to be ‘hinting at’ is definitely not acceptable. According to the National Association of State Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans, only 207,000 people are enrolled in these plans nationwide.

With about 15 million Americans having chronic or pre-existing conditions, but still no health insurance, this meager 207,000 is only about 1% of the total of chronic cases that still need to be covered. The cost of these plans is usually double that of the costs of normal plans in some of the states. Even these high prices don’t begin cover the expense of the treatments. For more on the tragic estate of the ‘denied’ segment, please refer to the article series entitled: “Those Worst Off”.

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