Originally Posted by NJblue

The point is that if an insurance company is not allowed to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, there would be millions of people like Gnu's friend who would opt to not buy it, knowing that if they ever got sick they could opt in at that point. It would make economic sense to play it that way. It would be like allowing people to buy hurricane insurance the day before a hurricane is projected to strike. In either event, you are limiting the pool of people who have the insurance to those who are expected to make a claim. This defeats the purpose of insurance which is to spread the risk evenly across a much broader base - most of whom will never have to make a major claim - hence keeping the cost of insurance low for everyone.