insurance at any cost?
Today, I’m completing health insurance application forms in order to apply for an offer from a new insurance provider for my company employee health plan. This is part of the decision process to determine what health insurance coverage will be provided to employees next year. Currently, we have a costly policy that may not be appropriate as we grow and costs rise.
So, the application asks all of the typical, vague questions about one’s health. Has anything ever hurt anywhere on your body at any time. When I consider that I’ve been around 60 years and I remember (maybe) health events that occurred three years ago (assuming I remember the timing and it was not ten years ago), body parts have hurt over the years. And, in the context of a routine visit, I may have mentioned to my doctor that things hurt and she may have recorded that in my record, what I remember or certify on my application may be different than what the doctor’s records contain. She may have memorialized things I don’t even remember and where there was not even a diagnosis or additional conversation.
And, of course, if there is any discrepancy which the insurance company wishes to challenge, they will go to my doc’s records. But they refuse to, even with my permission and encouragement, review my doctor’s records before hand. I do not wish to be accountable for things I’m not trained (as is my doctor with years of education and experience). I can give information to the best of my (not insignificant) ability but when the questions are vague and the risk of ‘wrong answers’ carries risk as to insurance coverage after perhaps years of paying premiums, I think it’s unfair that insurance companies do not to acquire the proper documentation, nor are they required to.
Seems like having your cake and eating it, too!
