Insurance on the open market? Good Luck.

The New York Times recently posted an op-ed article about the difficulty of purchasing health insurance in the individual market. If you have the time to read the whole story, I highly recommend it. It shows just how hard it is to purchase health insurance if you aren't receiving it from your employer. The family in the story is not poor, unemployed or in bad health. Yet the U.S. health insurance system is so twisted, that this family was denied coverage several times before finally attaining it.

Although frightening, the story shows what life is like for those who do not obtain employee based health insurance. This family had the means to fully pay for insurance and still could not get accepted. Imagine what life is like for those in poorer health who cannot afford insurance.

Some major issues this story raises:
1) U.S. reliance on employee sponsored health insurance
2) The difficulty of getting health insurance with "pre-existing conditions"

Is the U.S. relying too much on employee based insurance? Is it fair for people to be denied individual health insurance based on minor procedures and ailments? Should congress really be working to repeal the health care reform bill that protects against all of this? It really is a tough call...so let's get a discussion going.