Is this called kicking you while you are down or anticipating that you will be down and weÛªll have already kicked you? United Health has rolled out a product called UnitedHealth Continuity. It is not insurance but the right to buy insurance should you find yourself without any, say losing your job or retiring before Medicare kicks in. Typically in these situations, those uninsured with pre-existing conditions would find it impossible to get insurance. For this product, those who do pass a medical review will pay 20 percent each month of the current premium on an individual policy to reserve the right to be insured under the plan at some point in the future. If changes to the health insurance system do occur under the Obama administration the product will be obsolete as Obama has repeatedly said that everyone will be insured regardless of pre-existing conditions.
It will initially be available in 25 of the 40 states where UnitedHealth currently sells individual insurance. The New York Times offered an example of a 50-year-old male in Columbus, Ohio, who planned to eventually take an individual policy in which he would be obliged to pay the first $3,500 in medical bills would pay $32 a month for the right to eventually get that coverage ÛÓ or 20 percent of a policy that now costs $159 a month.
However just because you can become insured in the long run, what you pay today may not be what you pay tomorrow should you develop medical ailments that result in higher premiums than what healthy people pay.
ÛÏThis product is taking advantage of the lack of sensible health reform that could easily solve this problem,Û said Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA, a consumer advocacy group in
Is this another example of corporate greed disguised as good citizenship or will the marketplace see through this one? You know what they say about suckers…..