Pre-Existing Conditions and the Medical Savings and Loan

I need to clarify position of the Medical Savings and Loan on pre-existing condition.

The goal of the MS&L is for people to self-finance their care. If a person has a pre-existing condition, and the cost of this condition falls within the person's ability to pay for the condition, then the MS&L simply helps with financial planning.

When a person has a pre-existing condition that falls outside that person's ability to pay, the system identifies that person as a person needing assistance. The health care advocates in the MS&L would then start pursuing additional funding from charitable or state agencies.

Americans are a generous people, when we have a need properly identified, we can usually find assistance for that need.

The experience of a policy holder with a pre-existing condition is that they would sit down with a health care advocate who would assess costs associated with the condition and compare that to the policy holder's resources (income, investments, etc.). They would work with doctors to determine prevention and treatment options and set up a lending and repayment schedule. If this falls short, the HCA would then begin pursuing additional funding.

With this in mind, we find that the medical savings & loan accepts folks with pre-existing conditions. The amount of care the program is able to give is limited by the patient's income and resources and the ability to find external assistance.

This method is actually superior to the pooled insurance model where premiums are based on experience of the group and accepting people with pre-existing conditions dramatically alters the performance of the group. In such a system, folks with pre-existing conditions get shuffled about like players on a chessboard and are not able to take charge of their care.