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Are Facts Even Important Anymore?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s just my opinion, but I think that if you are going to go on TV and perform a very personal rant in a very public way, please do your fellow citizens a favor and know what the **** you are talking about.<\/p>\n Jimmy Kimmel recently stated, “Before 2014, if you were born with congenital heart disease like my son was, there was a good chance you’d never be able to get health insurance because you had a pre-existing condition, you were born with a pre-existing condition.”<\/p>\n This statement is largely false – or better yet, this statement is 87% false<\/strong>.\u00a0 Why, you ask?\u00a0 Because according to the US Census Bureau, in 2013 87% of Americans had health insurance.\u00a0 If parents have health insurance, a child born to the mother is covered under the parents’ policy whether or not the child has a health problem.<\/p>\n In addition, just because someone doesn\u2019t have health insurance does not mean that cannot receive health care<\/em>.\u00a0 The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTLA) of 1985 mandates that all hospitals provide treatment to anyone and everyone in need of emergency medical care regardless<\/em> of the patient\u2019s insurance status.\u00a0 Moreover, this obligation applies to anyone entering the hospital through the ER, or the front door, the loading dock, or even standing in the parking lot.\u00a0 Once they are on the hospital property, the hospital is obligated.<\/p>\n It\u2019s called Charity Care, and last year my local hospital provided about $4,000,000 worth of it to individuals with no insurance.\u00a0 Four million dollars!\u00a0 Note the hospital still had to pay the doctors and nurses, and do the x-rays, and lab tests, and provide medications\u2026 and in the end could not collect a dime in fair compensation despite having performed all of that work to make people better, and even save lives.<\/p>\n I absolutely appreciate Jimmy Kimmel being an involved, concerned father, and he has every right to speak passionately about the challenges of that role.\u00a0 However, is he a credible source for the promotion (accurately or inaccurately) of the alleged \u201cbenefits\u201d of the ACA?\u00a0 Given his entirely well-earned socio-economic success, I sincerely doubt that he bought his health insurance policy through one of the ACA exchanges.\u00a0 Something tells me that his health insurance policy, just like the policies of everyone in Congress, is probably juuuusssst a bit better than that.<\/p>\n Modern Day \u201cHate-Speech\u201d From an Old White Male<\/strong><\/p>\n As I write, I am preparing myself for the onslaught of pejorative comments about my lack of character, intelligence, empathy and concern for my fellow man (or woman, or womyn, or genderless being, or gender-fluid human, or non-binary entity, or whatever the hell it is we\u2019re supposed to call each other nowadays).\u00a0 In 2017, my age, race and chromosomes immediately qualify me for passionate negative, invective-laden politically-correct response.<\/p>\n So here it is:\u00a0 Unrestricted Pre-Existing Condition coverage clauses have absolutely NO business being in ANY health care legislation.\u00a0 NONE!!<\/strong><\/p>\n If your house burns down, can you then go out and buy fire insurance in order to have the insurance company build you a new house?\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n If you crash your car, can you then go and buy comprehensive collision insurance to have the insurance company pay for the restoration of your car? \u00a0No.<\/p>\n Then WHY should health insurance be any different?\u00a0 Not surprisingly, I\u2019ve already had the answer to that question spit at me more than once: \u201cBecause houses and cars are things, you moron, and this is all about people\u2019s lives!!!\u201d\u00a0 I see, how terribly foolish and insensitive of me.<\/p>\n So\u2026 if you die, can your family then go buy life insurance in order to have the insurance company not only pay your funeral expenses, but also provide a financial windfall for your beneficiaries? \u00a0Uh, no.<\/p>\n Quite frankly, the notion that anyone should be able to purchase any<\/em> type of immediate \u201cinsurance coverage\u201d for something that has already happened is absurd.\u00a0 This is just one of the things clearly indicating that many of the most vocal members of American society are on the path to the complete loss of reasonable, rational thought.<\/p>\n The Pre-Existing Purpose of Addressing Pre-Existing Conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n This has been a topic of serious discussion for many<\/em> years.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what Pre-Existing Condition legislation was supposed<\/em> to address, right up until the moment when emotion began to overrule reason.\u00a0 The original intent was to protect people who were already<\/em> insured by one provider, and were changing coverage to another insurance provider.\u00a0 It was never<\/em> intended to protect those who initially chose to not have health insurance, but now wanted it because they were sick.<\/p>\n Suppose you work for Employer A, who provides health insurance as an employment benefit.\u00a0 During this time, you are diagnosed with a serious, expensive-to-treat medical condition.\u00a0 Insurance Provider A covers your health care expenses per the terms of the policy.\u00a0 Now you want to leave Employer A for a better, more fulfilling position with Employer B, who also provides health insurance as an employment benefit.\u00a0 However, prior to making the change, you learn that Insurance Provider B will not cover the expenses of your specific condition, because it was pre-existing to your employment with Employer B, and therefore not their responsibility.<\/p>\n That situation was\/is very<\/em> common, and what it does is create \u201cbenefits hostages,\u201d preventing qualified, motivated people from moving around in the job market because they need to maintain their present level of insurance coverage.\u00a0\u00a0 This situation is not good for individuals or society for all kinds of reasons, including limiting basic American freedoms, hindering growth and creativity, and stifling the economy, just to name a few.<\/p>\n KNOW The Problem Before You Try To SOLVE The Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n One additional aspect of this that everybody<\/em> (including our buddy Jimmy, and quite frankly all<\/em> of Congress) seems to be missing:\u00a0 In most cases, pre-existing conditions do not prevent someone from getting insurance.\u00a0 Qualified applicants are typically granted the standard policy with a caveat: any pre-existing conditions will not be covered for a designated period of time, typically 6-12 months.\u00a0 This enables honest people to obtain coverage for most health needs, and go forward while waiting a reasonable, defined time for the onset of coverage of the identified pre-existing condition.\u00a0 Insurance companies are not unreasonable; they simply didn\u2019t think it fair for them to immediately cover something serious that pre-dates the onset of the policy, especially for those cases in which the individual refused to purchase insurance coverage while they were healthy.<\/p>\n Years ago the proposed solution and rationale was that health insurance providers should, without caveat, accept insured people moving from one provider to another regardless of their health status, because those people were already part of the total insured population pool.\u00a0 They were responsible enough to obtain insurance and pay premiums when they were healthy.\u00a0 Over time, the number of people with expensive conditions moving between providers would balance out, resulting in no provider getting stuck with more than their typical share of individuals with serious conditions.\u00a0 Simply put, every person transferring in with a pre-existing condition would be offset by a different person with a similar condition transferring out to another provider.\u00a0 Given that the top four health insurance companies (Blue Cross, Anthem-Cigna, UnitedHealth, and Aetna-Humana) cover about 240 million Americans (that\u2019s almost 75% of US citizens), basic probability alone supports this premise.<\/p>\n Speaking of insurance providers, we also need to understand that the primary purpose of health insurance providers is not<\/em> to pay for healthcare.\u00a0 Their main job is to produce positive return on investment, just like every other<\/em> business in a capitalist economy.\u00a0 All insurance providers must generate revenue in order to be able to actually pay the healthcare expenses they\u2019ve promised to pay, and pay their employees, and pay all of their other business-related expenses.\u00a0 For example, in 2014 Blue Cross of North Carolina paid out more than $266 million in local, state and federal taxes, and that\u2019s just BCBS in one state!\u00a0 Even the arithmetic I learned at Longfellow Jr. High was enough for me to understand that our covered medical bills far exceed the insurance premiums we currently pay.<\/p>\n America, Be Careful What You Demand<\/strong><\/p>\n Mandated Unrestricted Pre-Existing Condition Coverage will ultimately bankrupt some insurance companies, drive others out of the market, and dramatically increase the cost of all health insurance.\u00a0 It will eventually lead to a single-payer system run by the government.\u00a0 So, if you enjoy going to the Secretary of State to renew your license, you are going to love government-run healthcare, especially when your very life – or better yet, the life of your child \u2013 depends upon it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are Facts Even Important Anymore? It\u2019s just my opinion, but I think that if you are going to go on TV and perform a very personal rant in a very public way, please do your fellow citizens a favor and know what the **** you are talking about. Jimmy Kimmel recently stated, “Before 2014, if … Continue reading “PRE-EXISTING HYSTERIA – Perhaps Soon to be Known as Kimmel Syndrome”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-commentary-and-perspective"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1120,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions\/1120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyledwilson.com\/davidwilsonupnorth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}