Broken Healthcare System: Cherrypicking 257

Unless healthcare is universal, we'll continue to get egregious instances of cherrypicking by insurance companies. Who knew a Caesarian birth could render a mom un-insurable or forced to pay more for insurance (NYTimes)?

When the Golden Rule Insurance Co. rejected her application for health coverage last year, Peggy Robertson was mystified....said Mrs. Robertson, "I'm in perfect health." She was turned down because she had given birth by Caesarean section. Having the operation once increases the odds that it will be performed again, and if she became pregnant and needed another Caesarean, Golden Rule did not want to pay for it... With individual insurance, unlike the group coverage sponsored by employers, insurance companies in many states are free to pick and choose the people and conditions they cover, and base the price on a person's medical history. Sometimes, a past Caesarean means higher premiums.

As more and more people are self-employed or take jobs that offer no health insurance, millions more Americans will seek individual health coverage...where cherry-picking the healthiest and gouging or refusing the others is rampant.