Huckabee Opposes Insurance For People With Pre-Existing Conditions

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

former arkansas gov. mike huckabee ® this week blasted the democrats' health reform law for its prohibition on health insurers denying patients based on pre-existing conditions.

applying that logic to car insurance, huckabee argued friday, reveals the folly of the provision.

"how would you like to be able to call your insurance agent for your car and say, 'i want you to insure my car,'" huckabee told an audience at the value voters summit in washington friday. "'well, tell me about your car.' 'well, it was a pretty nice vehicle until my sixteen year-old boy wrecked it yesterday.'

"now how much would a policy cost if it covered everything? about as much as it's gonna cost for health care in this country."...

...a central selling point for the democrats' healthcare law was the so-called patients' bill of rights-a series of consumer protections designed to rein in the most controversial practices of the insurance companies. among those reforms, plans-beginning on sept. 23-will no longer be able to deny coverage for kids based on pre-existing conditions. the prohibition extends to all populations in 2014.

huckabee, a gop primary contender in the 2008 presidential election, currently hosts a program for the fox news channel....

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/119547-huckabee-slams-plan-to-ban-insurers-from-denying-coverage-to-sick-people

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

How ironic. Huckabee is a diabetic who used to weigh over 300 lbs. As governor of Arkansas, he was covered by the same health insurance plan as other Arkansas state employees. When he was diagnosed with diabetes, he made big changes to the state employee insurance plan.