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Originally posted by junglejake
If I'm going to cost my insurance company at least $3,000/year for insulin and doctors visits, they'd be idiots to charge me less than that per year unless they were a charitable organization.
Originally posted by Digital_Reality
I agree its low down to commit fraud and hide a preexisting condition but the insurance company's should do their homework before they write a policy. Run them through all the test necessary to insure a healthy person.
Originally posted by Digital_Reality
Run them through all the test necessary to insure a healthy person.
The state's largest for-profit health insurer is sending physicians copies of health insurance applications filled out by new patients, along with a letter advising them that the company has a right to drop members who fail to disclose "material medical history," the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site.
"Any condition not listed on the application that is discovered to be pre-existing should be reported to Blue Cross immediately," according to the letter obtained by the newspaper.
Originally posted by goosdawg
Isn't the entire purpose of having insurance to equitably spread the costs of service across all the policy holders?
Originally posted by junglejake
It's also not a patient/doctor confidentiality issue. Your insurance company is given more detailed information than you usually are on any procedures and tests run on you. All they're looking for is for your doctor to say if something is new or you've had it for a while.
Physicians' survival will depend on their ability to articulate eloquently to the public the fact that they have been and remain their patients' best advocates. If physicians are not successful in conveying this message, the medical profession will become an enslaved government trade union rather than remaining an independent and honorable profession. That is, in short,
what is at stake for the House of Medicine.
insurance - Information from Reference.com
insurance or assurance, device for indemnifying or guaranteeing an individual against loss. Reimbursement is made from a fund to which many individuals exposed to the same risk have contributed certain specified amounts, called premiums. Payment for an individual loss, divided among many, does not fall heavily upon the actual loser. The essence of the contract of insurance, called a policy, is mutuality. The major operations of an insurance company are underwriting, the determination of which risks the insurer can take on; and rate making, the decisions regarding necessary prices for such risks. The underwriter is responsible for guarding against adverse selection, wherein there is excessive coverage of high risk candidates in proportion to the coverage of low risk candidates. In preventing adverse selection, the underwriter must consider physical, psychological, and moral hazards in relation to applicants. Physical hazards include those dangers which surround the individual or property, jeopardizing the well-being of the insured. The amount of the premium is determined by the operation of the law of averages as calculated by actuaries. By investing premium payments in a wide range of revenue-producing projects, insurance companies have become major suppliers of capital, and they rank among the nation's largest institutional investors.
All emphasis mine
Originally posted by Digital_Reality
Take the money you would normally pay to health insurance and put it into a high yield savings account.
Originally posted by Digital_Reality
Another thing, I think if they cancel your coverage they should pay back every dime to date that you paid them that has not been used to pay your medical bills. That would make them think fast and reconsider canceling people's policy's. Why should they keep money you paid them that never got used if they are no longer going to cover you?? Do they think they deserve it just because?
Originally posted by benign.psychosis
Originally posted by goosdawg
Let me give you another perspective, ye who doth portray victim.
First of all, the company issues insurance on a whim, without realizing what medical problems the customer has. This benefits the customer greatly in that they can get better coverage relative to their previous conditions.
What do you know, a corporation actually doing something nice? Giving people the benefit of the doubt - trust, in fact - that the customer is not hiding some type of severe ailment in an effort to exploit the insurance system and get their expensive medical treatment paid for, while contributing little to nothing in the process.
Now comes the part when the cheating, lying customer is revealed after incurring extremely high medical costs - after being with the company for merely one month - for the philanthropic, generous, caring insurance company. What wretchedness! What vile, evil ways. What right does the customer have to take advantage of an insurance company that altruistically waives the process of checking patients medical history?
As these evil villains are shown for what they really are, the company dumps their no good arses from the policy - never again to take care of those who would abuse, misuse, and play on the very lifeline that once stood tall to take such care of them.
[edit on 13-2-2008 by benign.psychosis]
Originally posted by junglejake
Originally posted by AWingAndASigh
In other words, the insurance companies only want to take your money and give you nothing in return. And they're willing to turn Doctors into corporate spies to make it happen.
Not really. This is more a fraud prevention system. When you switch insurance policies, often there is a period where pre-existing medical conditions are not covered, and you also, when you sign up, sign that the information you provided the insurance company is legitimate. The does effect the cost of your insurance.
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It's also not a patient/doctor confidentiality issue. Your insurance company is given more detailed information than you usually are on any procedures and tests run on you. All they're looking for is for your doctor to say if something is new or you've had it for a while.
Originally posted by kattraxx
reply to post by jsobecky
The root of the problem with insurance companies is that a health care system should not be a for profit business. IMHO.
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When a health care system is a for-profit business, profit will always come first at the expense of the insured.