The Savage Arithmetic of the Pre-Existing Condition

[Technowitch]

56. One doesn't even need to be "really" sick to be rejected

A little over 10 years ago, I discovered no health insurance company wanted to cover me, except one or two that would specifically include riders for the main reasons why I'd ever go to see a doctor in the first place. Namely hayfever allergies and migraine headaches. They also wanted to exclude chiropractics (since I occasionally went for adjustments due to a lower back malformation) and a couple other things. The cost for the privilege of having insurance I could barely use, with a high deductible anyway? $650/month.

Luckily, I found a professional organization that offered group insurance for self-employed folks like myself. So yay, I had insurance again, and it wasn't that bad or terribly expensive.

Then the underwriter dropped us, and we were all thrown back into the individual market. At this point, for the same cited reasons -- allergies and migraines -- I was told that NOBODY wanted to insure me. I have a whole folder full of rejections from 2004, making it clear they truly didn't want to cover me. All because of two conditions I can handle 95% of the time with OTC meds, and where the other 5% of the time, some Flonase or Imitrex helps my quality of life be that much better.

At no point in my entire life did I ever come close to drawing out more in claims than I paid in. I had nothing more than the minor complaints suffered by millions of other Americans, and this was enough to deny me coverage. Back then, I was told my only option was to get on my state's High Risk insurance pool waiting list, where I could be expected to face premiums well north of a grand a month, probably close to two.

This year, I decided enough was enough, and I applied again. Got the expected rejection letter -- for exactly the same reasons. This time, however, I had an option -- and I applied to the Federal High Risk Pool...discovering that the subsidized rates aren't that bad, and that I qualified for the subsidized rate.

Absent the ACA and its eventual ban on refusing coverage due to preexisting conditions, and on charging more for them, and absent the interim high risk pool, I'd still lack insurance and any means for getting it.

And this is why I become furious when these GOPer sociopaths try to insist that not having insurance is entirely a choice. I have an inch thick folder of rejection letters over the course of eight years that says otherwise. For seasonal allergies and migraines!