Preexisting conditions

In case you needed one last nudge into thinking health care needs a smidge of reform, the Washington Post is here to give you a rundown on the insurance industry practice of not insuring people with "preexisting conditions." Sure, we know that practice would include people with serious diseases like cancer, but did you know it affected people with Firefighter's Disease? Symptoms of which include feeling the need to work and earn a living as a firefighter. There's more.

A proposal to make preexisting health conditions irrelevant in the sale of insurance policies could help not just the seriously ill but also people who might consider themselves healthy, documents released Friday by a California-based advocacy group illustrate.
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A PacifiCare "Medical Underwriting Guidelines" document from 2003 lists under "Ineligible Occupations" such risk-takers as stunt people, test pilots and circus workers -- along with police officers, firefighters and migrant workers.

Uninsurable conditions included pregnancy, and being an "expectant father" was grounds for "automatic rejection." So was having received "therapy/counseling" within six months of the application. There was also this more general disqualifier: "currently experiencing/experienced within the last 12 months symptoms for which a physician has not been consulted."

The full Consumer Watchdog study shows that other uninsurable jobs include public utility workers, people who have landed on the Water Works or Electric Company spaces during a regulation game of Monopoly, and war correspondents. Yeah, fuck you too Michael Ware. Also, don't ever think of having a baby, those little shits cost insurance companies money and the practice of procreation needs to be stopped immediately. If you were taking medications like Zyrtec for your allergies or Lamasil for your yellow toenails, had acne or sought therapy, meant that you didn't deserve coverage. I shudder to think about what will happen to the coverage of all the people using Latisse for their insufficient eyelashes or those who have stubbed their toe in the last six years.

Yeah...so I'm think maybe we shouldn't wait until the insurance companies have figured out a way to work the actuary tables to figure out how to insure only those who will never get sick/injured or been given sufficient time by our elected betters to consult on ways they could better weaken proposed legislation.