Some insurers argue that Americans are waiting until they get sick to sign up and then finding a way to qualify during the so-called special enrollment period, which is traditionally open to those who change jobs, get married or divorced or have a baby. The Obama administration has since said it would tighten the rules for joining Obamacare during this period.
Um. Even if they "tighten up" that rule, they'll still be able to enroll the following year. That's the whole guaranteed issue thing. I am totally shocked that requiring insurers to cover a crap ton more people with preexisting conditions has raised costs and premiums. Did not see that coming.
The preexisting thing isn't the issue. Actually accepting people with conditions isn't inherently the issue. The problem is that eff face blows out his knee, quits his job (that probably didn't offer insurance to begin with) and claims the special window to get ACA exchange insurance. Now instead of having a year's worth of premiums, or at least knowing this clown was a potential customer, an insurance company has to pay out $35K in the first week of having them as a client. Now imagine if they person is hit with a cancer diagnosis or something like a transplant.
So for now we've shifted that cost onto insurance companies, instead of the state/fed medicaid system (or socialized through bankruptcy) and they don't like it.
What you just described constitutes "preexisting conditions." It means expecting insurance to pay for an injury or illness you sustained before you got the insurance. And it doesn't work economically, for reasons that should have been obvious from the beginning. Unfortunately, many liberal politicians, and the people who support them, live in an economic fantasy land. (See, e.g., Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, etc.).
And this is one of the primary reasons Obamacare is a disaster. Insurance companies glommed onto this turd because they thought enough healthy people would enroll and, if not, they'd be bailed out with tax dollars. Win/win. Only it's not turning out that way. The healthy and young aren't enrolling in sufficient numbers - either because they've got perfectly good coverage through work or they'd rather just pay/dodge the tax penalty for being uninsured - and the risk corridor subsidies aren't sufficient to cover the losses.
