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Jan. 15th, 2007 12:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_alchemyI apologize that this is a few days later then the initial reaction but I wanted to read further into the matter before making any comment.
I do not see why health insurance companies should not be allowed to ask about the X-gene when deciding whether or not to insure someone. True, it could be said that they would decline people just because of it, but not necessarily for the reasons one would think. I believe the companies should have the right to reject someone if they know they have no facilities to help them if the need arises.
Would one prefer to find out the company has no facility in their network to help with a certain mutation related problem when they apply vice when the help is actually needed? At least if they know about it, then they can inform the applicant of their lack of facilities and thus better their service to their customers. In fact, if they got a lot of applicants and the demand was high, they would then see about adding said facilities to their networks to increase their customer base and thus profits. They can not do this is they are uninformed and they will remain ignorant unless they be allowed to ask. The same could be said of many ‘normal’ alignments that are asked about for insurance purposes.
No doubt many of you will read this and jump down my throat, but I’m disinclined to care. I have said my piece just as I saw many have already said theirs in Forge’s earlier post.
I do not see why health insurance companies should not be allowed to ask about the X-gene when deciding whether or not to insure someone. True, it could be said that they would decline people just because of it, but not necessarily for the reasons one would think. I believe the companies should have the right to reject someone if they know they have no facilities to help them if the need arises.
Would one prefer to find out the company has no facility in their network to help with a certain mutation related problem when they apply vice when the help is actually needed? At least if they know about it, then they can inform the applicant of their lack of facilities and thus better their service to their customers. In fact, if they got a lot of applicants and the demand was high, they would then see about adding said facilities to their networks to increase their customer base and thus profits. They can not do this is they are uninformed and they will remain ignorant unless they be allowed to ask. The same could be said of many ‘normal’ alignments that are asked about for insurance purposes.
No doubt many of you will read this and jump down my throat, but I’m disinclined to care. I have said my piece just as I saw many have already said theirs in Forge’s earlier post.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-15 06:59 am (UTC)Certainly, your average HMO just about anywhere is not going to have coverage for complications related to many mutations, no more will they have coverage for complications related to rare genetic diseases. Does that mean, though, they should be able to deny you a policy that would cover tripping, falling and breaking your arm?
Already there are too many people in this country without proper health care who wait until the last possible moment to see a doctor, flooding emergency rooms across the nation with serious problems that could have been dealt with less expensively and with less possibility of severe complications. People who can not afford to see the doctor because their insurance doesn't cover it wait until they can't afford not to anymore, seriously stressing the resources of every ER out there. Genetic screening used as a criteria for whether or not an insurance company will cover someone only increases the problem, whether they are screening for the x-factor or a familial tendency towards heart problems. Which, it should be noted, the bill in question also covers. Already there are several states which have genetic non-discrimination laws in place to prevent insurers denying service to 'high risk' customers, and most of those laws don't make a distinction between refusing to allow the HMOs to ask about genetic illness factors and the x-factor. This bill, if it passes, would make that protection mandatory throughout the country.
It's no fairer or more right for a person to be denied service for one genetic problem than another, and for anyone involved in the medical profession, refusing to help someone simply because they'll be more work is sickening, and the fact that the insurance companies keep forgetting their entire profession is based, in theory, on helping people just annoys me to know end.
Honestly, insurance in this country is practically a massive game of roulette, with the HMOs betting you'll never get sick and stacking the odds in their favor with their screenings and exclusions. And they make a lot of money that way, which everyone else pays for in state and city taxes to fund the overloaded hospitals.