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In a series of blog posts for the Columbia Journalism Review, CJR Contributing Editor Trudy Lieberman takes the press to task for its under-coverage of both candidates' proposals for health insurance reform. And she explains why Obama's plan is neither 'national' nor 'universal.'
It is not sufficient to focus only on how to get coverage to those who cannot afford it. An important reality that the media does not highlight enough is the fact that insurance companies routinely deny private coverage to sick people, irrespective of their ability to pay the premium, and that many such people do not have access to an employer sponsored group plan.
The fact is that many individuals either never have, or lose the benefit of, an employer sponsored plan, and have no choice but to seek insurance through an individual policy. If such person has a serious medical condition or even a condition that has the potential to become serious, it is most likely that his or her application for individual coverage will be rejected.
I would appreciate anything you can do to highlight this problem in the public forum. In particular, it should be pointed out that McCain's plan not only seems to ignore this reality, but would appear to exacerbate its consequences by causing even greater reliance on individual health insurance policies without simultaneously requiring insurance companies to provide access to such policies irrespective of the applicant's health condition.
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