Howard’s story: I can’t get health insurance | HealthCare.gov

Following is an excerpt from one of several e-mails the Department of HHS is sending out to promote the health insurance marketplaces.

Have you met Howard?

Howard is a self-employed software designer who needs health insurance.

He designs health care software and like millions of Americans, Howard has been denied health insurance coverage because of a pre-existing condition.

via Howard’s story: I can’t get health insurance | HealthCare.gov.

Here is the real question, why didn’t Howard have health insurance five years ago before he had diabetes? We focus a lot on pre-existing conditions, but the fact is many people, perhaps most people could have obtained health insurance before they had any condition and chose not to or were less than diligent in heeding time limits for doing so. If health insurance is unaffordable when underwriting is used, what makes us think it will be more affordable when there is no underwriting?

All this is quite irrelevant now, but isn’t it interesting we never seem to ask the most basic questions when trying to solve a problem?