Good discussion of the problems caused by insurance companies, though without details, but then the editors declare , without proof, that everything would be wonderful if all the healthy people would be paying for insurance, too.

This article repeats some of the egregious behaviors of health insurance companies, a fact of their existence for the past several decades. It suggests, without evidence, that there are ways to make the insurance industry more effective in health care delivery, mentioning regulation, compulsion to cover high risk subscribers and the effect of competition from a public plan as primary ways this might be done. The article fails to offer any balance in the form of explanations from the ... More »

Well-written and persuasive. Features facts I did not know before reading it. Presents a realistic, though general, emphasis on what is needed to reign in unethical and destructive insurance company practices.

The Times editorial covers one aspect of insurance that has touched almost every life--the denial of claims for alleged pre-existing conditions. The insurers had said such cancelations were rare; but congressional investigators found more than 20,000 in a short time span. The editorial makes a case for competitive national health insurance.