How Accessible Is Individual Health Insurance for Consumers in Less-than-Perfect Health?
a June 2001 Kaiser Family Foundation report, says that 90 percent of the time, the seven hypothetical consumers in this study, who were not in perfect health, “were unable to obtain the coverage for which they applied at a standard rate.” Karen Pollitz of Georgetown University and colleagues asked nineteen insurance companies and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that write coverage in one or more of eight geographically diverse markets to respond to hypothetical applications from consumers such as a person who is HIV-positive, another who is a breast cancer survivor, and another with situational depression. Looked at another way, although 63 percent of applications were accepted, most of those offers involved benefit limits, premium surcharges, or both. The study found “that medical underwriting is practiced very differently by different health insurers” and that geographic location can affect price. “Regulation of individual health insurance coverage is largely under the jurisd
