http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/0910/healthcareless/flash.html

“Opponents of the public option claim that by being forced to compete against the government, health care companies will be at an unfair advantage. But right now, health care companies hardly have to compete at all. In most states, one health care provider controls the vast share of the market, which allows them to raise premiums far faster than the wages of their customers rise. The market might be the best solution for health care, but right now, it’s being controlled by virtual monopolies in many states.”

Oh right, so they don’t leave me to die in the emergency room. Compelling.

Here’s the really nasty thing. I’ve been on health insurance steadily since pretty much forever. Usually it’s when you have a “lapse” of more than X months that they assign any issues as “pre-existing”. But since I told my doctor that I’d been experiencing some variety of stomach pain and anxiety for a few months, and had experienced it occasionally for 6 to 12 months before that (that went on record), my insurance company decided that anything she diagnosed me with (at that time it was Acid Reflux and Panic Disorder) was now a pre-existing condition, even though I had health insurance (albeit a different one) when experiencing those issues.

What’s the moral here - don’t tell your doctor if you’ve been dealing with a problem for awhile?? Seems like a lose-lose situation. Fortunately for me, after seeing a Naturopathic doctor, I found out that my problem was actually Food Allergies, so perhaps next time I get a bill, my insurance will have actually covered that.

— NYTimes | NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF | The Body Count at Home