[asdafasad]

Ahaha, yeah, right? It's just ridiculous. What a laughable debate, this whole insurance thing is. It's just the free market working to optimize outcomes.

By the way, can you help me understand what a 'pre-existing condition' is? Literally nobody outside of America has experience with this term.

[fastball]

Most health insurance in most of the world has the concept of "pre-existing conditions".

How could it be otherwise? Insurance was invented to hedge risk. In the case of healthcare, if you literally already have a condition that has known and ongoing costs associated with it, it doesn't make any sense for an insurance company to insure you against that risk – the risk has already manifested.

[FromOmelas]

No, that's not right. Public health insurance in the EU does not use that concept. Participating insurance companies are not allowed to set rates that way, since it doesn't serve the public good.

[s1artibartfast]

They arent allowed to set rates that way in the US either, so it is an irrelevant point.

[Philadelphia]

Only since the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). Before that, it was common to not be able to get insurance with pre-existing conditions at all without being covered by your employer. And even sometimes your employer’s plan had a waiting period for pre-existing conditions. I got stuck without insurance for a long time after college (being able to stay on your parents’ plan after graduation is also an ACA provision) and still have nightmares about it.

[s1artibartfast]

Correct. ACA was passed 15 years ago and I was describing the healthcare system today

[Philadelphia]

You’re implying the situation is as stable as it is in other first-world countries. It’s not. It’s brand new, and Donald Trump has sworn it’s going away.

[fastball]

Believe it or not, there is significantly more to the world than the EU.

[grecy]

Neither Canada, nor Australia nor the UK has this concept.

You’re a legal resident? You have 100% healthcare same as everyone else. There isn’t even a question about pre existing anything

[tzs]

Plenty of people outside the US will have experience with pre-existing conditions as a factor in health insurance.

For example many Germans will have experience with it because they have a system that has both a public and a private system. Those with high enough income (around 70k Euros) can opt out of the public system and use the private system instead. Also there are some classes of people that only can get part of their coverage from the public system and so need to buy additional coverage through the private system.

Insurers in that private system can take into account pre-existing conditions. They cannot reject an application over pre-existing conditions but they can charge higher premiums because of those conditions.

Another example is Switzerland. They have a universal healthcare system based on mandatory insurance from private health insurance companies. For that mandatory insurance pre-existing conditions are not a factor, but there is also supplemental insurance available that covers things not included in the mandatory insurance.

The supplemental providers can and do consider pre-existing conditions when deciding whether or not to provide coverage.

[amrangaye]

Only a “laughable debate” and “just the free market” if you haven’t actually had to deal with these insurance companies when you have a health issue and have never paid your dues late. I’m guessing you’re from somewhere in Europe with universal health care?

[asdafasad]

I'm foreign to the US and no longer work there (Thanks to Trump, literally and directly.) While I was there... I literally worked for an insurance company. I have also done work for a pharmaceutical company. The motivation in healthcare in the US is purely profit. It is not like that anywhere else in my experience.