Preexisting conditions, insurance

Today's (Monday's) paper mentioned that health insurance companies could not afford to accept customers with preexisting conditions. This is a blatant lie. How many people actually have no preexisting conditions? We live in an imperfect world and accumulate maladies as life progresses, on top of those we inherit from our parents.

If life insurance companies used the same considerations in selecting their customers they would never find any suitable customers for life insurance, because all of their customers also have a preexisting condition called death. We know, however, that they are able to sell life insurance and make a profit at it based on the laws of probability.

Health insurers need to stop trying to cherry pick the healthiest customers, thus leveling the playing field between the insurers. Mutual insurance works, because you have a mix of sick and healthy customers, and most people are not sick all the time, although there will always be a few at both extremes.

If the existing insurers can't do this then maybe the profit motive needs to be removed from this part of the concept of the health care system. It may be more realistic to consider health coverage the way you consider your utility bill. Your utility services are provided by a single supplier who has a geographic monopoly and whose rates are set by the expenses incurred.

Health care should be part of the U.S. Bill of Rights by extension, because it's hard to be happy when you are sick.

Greg Steiner, Jackson