“Thankfully you have good health.
Yet you are in for a big surprise when your COBRA runs out.
Have you been quoted rates yet?”
Yes. It’s going to be more expensive, no question about it. Hence my point about the need for relaxing the AHP rules to allow more group health insurance plans, and my concession that some sort of program where the government is “insurer of last resort” is probably unavoidable.
“And if you’d have suffered a heart attack, cancer, or high blood pressure or any other of a host of issues, the insurers simply refuse to cover them. Period. And there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.”
There’s generally a waiting period on pre-existing conditions, depending on the insurer. And yes, it’s an argument for decoupling health insurance from employment. Our current arrangement is largely a consequence of World War II’s very high marginal tax rates, and the need of employers to offer a non-income benefit for employers.
