re: #254 Chaplain

The site references a 2002 report by the kaiser family foundation that details how hard it is for 6 hypothetical patients to purchase their own insurance. Many of these patients have pre-existing conditions. I find this very interesting. I know pre-existing conditions are factored in when you purchase medical insurance but I have not experienced this with my health insurance. I am paying for health insurance through my workplace and when I married two years ago my wife, who has several major pre-existing conditions, was accepted to the health plan without anything but the standard married without kids increase. The odd thing about the whole process was that there were no health questions sent to us when she joined. Again, I know when you buy insurance yourself there are questions they ask you but is that true when you buy it through your employer? Maybe I am just lucky?

Employer group plans cannot exclude based on pre-existing conditions, but individual plans can. This ties insurance to employment even more strongly.