Insurance: The Abject Fraud of Covering “Pre-existing Conditions”

 Via comment by Terry on Dave Brat, R-Va. of the House Freedom Caucus: New …
Key quote: “Health insurance” that “covers” pre-existing conditions IS NOT HEALTH INSURANCE. It is a fraudulent asset-shifting racket. “

Insurance is RISK POOLING.

A group of people get together, generally under the organization of a for-profit entity, and each person or unit pays into a pool.  The purpose of the pool is to pay out to any paying member of the risk pool SHOULD AN ADVERSE EVENT HAPPEN TO THEM.  In a sane world, these adverse events are rare, unforeseen and catastrophic or potentially catastrophic.

The more people that pay into the pool, the lower the premiums can be – to a point.  Why?  Because across large groups, analysts and statisticians within the for-profit company can estimate, with greater and greater precision, the number of adverse incidents that will probably occur within the risk pool group. This is called ACTUARIAL SCIENCE, and a person who studies the frequency or risk of certain events across large groups or populations is called an ACTUARY.  So, the larger the risk pool, the more precise and accurate the actuarial studies can be.  It is impossible to predict what will happen to one individual person over the course of, say, the next year.  HOWEVER, it is possible, and morally licit, to say that over the course of the next year, within a group of, say, 100,000 people, how many can reasonably be expected to be diagnosed with cancer, get in a serious car wreck, have a heart attack, be run over by a Zamboni machine, etc.