Health insurance – reforms needed

Today is the day before the the nation’s 13th general elections which will decide who will form the next Government. Come what may, we hope that the nation’s healthcare sector will see progress. One of the things which we feel needs addressing is Health Insurance. Reform in the industry is badly needed.

Right now, some of the issues we have are:
1) Insurance companies decide whom they want to insure.
Being a business, the tendency is to insure the “low risk” and those with pre-existing illnesses and the elderly for instance are not likely to be insured as these fall in the “higher risk” category.
2) Insurance companies come up with their own creative definitions of illnesses. We have come across cases where a disease is deemed a Cancer only when it requires “active treatment” or “surgery”. In the medical definition, a cancer is a cancer when proven on biopsy. Whether or not it requires “active treatment” at the time of diagnosis does not make it less a cancer.
These are just some examples where Insurance companies discriminate against health care consumers.

We need a Government which can legislate the healthcare industry. We hope to see
1) Compulsory health insurance.
If you require insurance to drive a car, why not compulsory health insurance for all?
2) Insurance companies cannot deny cover for anyone.
Imagine being denied car insurance because of a pre-existing accident or if “your car is too old” !!
3) Premiums must be reasonable. A higher premium can be set for higher risk patients but perhaps following the motor car industry model, an NCB can also be applied as a health incentive for those who stay healthy.

What do you think?