Chronic Medical Condition, Move To Canada
A woman with chronic syncope needing pacemaker placement worries about future costs for replacement pacemakers on Ask MeFi. Most posters suggest she move to Canada; one even offers to marry her.
What a mess. Classic example of someone who clearly couldn’t buy her own insurance–it’s doubtful anyone would cover her syncope condition, so she’d be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars over her lifetime for her “pre-existing condition.” Just one of the many problems with an individual mandate.
I fail to see a problem with individual mandates in this case.
1) The insurance industry gets to sign up everybody in the country.
2) The rates are truly community-rated – the insurers can only vary rates by age, gender and large geographical area (say, state).
3) Everybody has to buy.
4) The minimum set of benefits in the plan is roughly analogous to the FEHB plan that federal civilian employees receive. (Check it out – it’s insanely good.)
Insurers compete on service, network, cleverness…everything *but* lowball rates by only insuring those unlikely to need it.
The problem with individual mandates is not having the balls to force insurers to take anyone willing and able to pay the tariff, and setting the bar for “risk pool” so low as to be laughable. In Washington, conditions with 5-year survivals over 90% can disqualify you from private insurance for something like nine years.
Don’t hate on individual mandate; it’s the only way to make sure the young and healthy are paying in their subsidy to cover the old and sick, paying it forward for the time when they’re old and sick, too.
E
I have no problem with an individual mandate if whatever legislation that creates it imposes a reciprocal mandate on insurers to provide affordable coverage to everyone. I have a real problem with an individual mandate if insurance companies are allowed to continue their current practice of picking only the juiciest cherries for their executives and shareholders and leaving everyone else in violation of the law because they can’t get usable insurance at a price they can afford.
Unfortunately, if we do ever have a mandate the latter scenario will be far more likely. No politician is courageous enough to do anything that would impair the profitability of an important donor. We could end up with another Medicare Part D scam. The corrupt campaign financing system in this country is the root of many evils, including the deplorable state of health care.
My mother is in a similar situation. She’s fighting cancer, and she has a number of chronic conditions, all of which make her uninsurable. She gets insurance from the small business that my parents own — but they are closing the business, and there’s no other way for her to get insurance.
And I’m thinking, they had better pass a universal health care law in California soon.
I have a question. Why don’t we put a check on the insurance companies rather than the government? The latter seems less effective.
it is not that easy to move to canada.
a pacemaker generator for her should cost a few thousand. if she didn’t have insurance, the physician would find a way to get it done. that might mean the hospital, physician, and device company might have to donate some costs, but that is not unusual. it doesn’t solve the underlying problem. however, as disquieting it must be for her, i would tell her not to worry, it will get done one way or another when the time comes, insurance or no. i encouarage her to pursue her dream.
ymmv