# Preexisting medical conditions: why allow denial of insurance coverage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 11, 2003, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preexisting-medical-conditions-why-allow-denial-of-insurance-coverage/187726 "2003-07-11T15:29:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preexisting-medical-conditions-why-allow-denial-of-insurance-coverage/187726/21 "2003-07-12T16:59:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DSeid \* > \*\*Actually I’ve talked to some insurance company executives about this. They really do not have a problem with it, _as long as they are all on the same playing field._ \*\*None of the ones I talk to feel this way. Forcing all car manufacturers to install expensive features may make the playing field level, but it will certainly eliminate some customers you would otherwise have had. I’ve been in this industry for more than twenty years, yet it still astounds me to see the sense of entitlement people have over a financial service provided by a private company. I want my bank to give me 10% on my money market account. I think they should be forced to do so. How is this any different? The fact that you want something does not turn it into an entitlement. If it is unethical for an insurance company to deny unprofitable coverage, then I suppose we ought to force all private companies to kick into the kitty. Why do private firms in this industry alone owe anyone this support? Bill Gates should be forced to pay a billion a year or so to support anyone who is denied insurance coverage. Disney should too, and IBM. Why should they get to enjoy profits when there are people out there who are not getting the insurance coverage they would strongly prefer? Why can’t a company exclude or include any coverage it deems profitable to exclude or include? Why isn’t it the consumer’s prerogative simply to pick whichever company best accommodates their needs? At what point do we stop the madness that suggests that anyone has the divine right to something that someone else will have to pay for? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preexisting-medical-conditions-why-allow-denial-of-insurance-coverage/187726/22 "2003-07-12T17:05:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by John Mace \* > \*\*Apos: Didn’t you get the memo that health insurance is now a “right”? \*\* Why shouldn’t it be? Should health be a priviledge? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preexisting-medical-conditions-why-allow-denial-of-insurance-coverage/187726/23 "2003-07-12T17:25:40Z")
Health **insurance** is a **service** provided by a **private** company. I think all poor people are disadvantaged by not having a computer. So I think Microsoft should be forced to give poor people computers. How is that any different? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preexisting-medical-conditions-why-allow-denial-of-insurance-coverage/187726/24 "2003-07-12T18:13:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Why shouldn’t it be? Should health be a priviledge? \*\* 1. If you have a right to health insurance, that means you have a right to garner someone else’s wages to provide you with insurance. Otherwise, how would you obtain that “right”? Do you really believe that a person can have a “right” that imposes a financial obligation on someone else? We agree as a society to pay taxes knowing that some money will go to help the needy. But the needy don’t have a “right” to that assistance. 2. You’ve put up a false dichotomy. If something is not a right, it doesn’t have to be priviledge. A driver’s license is a prviviledge in the sense that the gov’t can withhold it from you under certain circumstances. Health care is no more a right or a priviledge than food is. it is neither. The gov’t cannot withhold health insurance from you. You are free to purchase it in any way the insurance companies make it available. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preexisting-medical-conditions-why-allow-denial-of-insurance-coverage/187726/25 "2003-07-13T18:26:05Z")
Let us rephrase. Should “basic health care” (open to debate as to what that is, but save that for now) be a right in our society? Or is health care something that falls under liberterian principles only? Can private industry be utilized to provide that right if you believe that such exists? Or is our current system of rationing without rationality the best that can be? Or should you and I with private health insurance pay for those without via taxation only? What happens to those with pre-existing conditions currently? They can’t get insurance unless they are pooled as part of mega-corp. Uninsured they are charged significantly more for health care than those who have group rate discounts. They therefore often go without until in most dire need and show up on the doorsteps of the hospital in critical condition. The hospital is mandated to admit them, the on-call practice is mandated to provide care, the individual is incapable of paying those bills, which are now much greater than early intervention would have resulted in. Who eventually pays for these now inflated costs? You and I do. It is passed along to you one way or the other. You are paying for their health care, just paying a lot more than if they were insured or otherwise had “basic health care” provided. (BTW, no one stops an insurance company from covering someone with a pre-existing condition. They just want to avoid the acturial risk.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preexisting-medical-conditions-why-allow-denial-of-insurance-coverage/187726.md?page=1)