Recently, there have been additional stories about health insurers rescinding policies and/or not paying people's medical bills, based on pre-existing conditions, often tiny and often inadvertantly and often unknown by the insured patient, being left off health insurance applications.

As I've always been kind of worried about this, especially as nowadays there are so many tests and diseases that are done to people, that might turn up a possibility of something, which your doctor might even have forgotton to mention to you, or not told you about because he thought he/she might have only frightened you about some possibility of something you can't do much about.

There is also a possibility that somethng you posted to a support group on the internet as far back as years in the past will be a known or unknown symptom of some condition, which will nab you and you will lose your insurance, or bills will be unpaid. Further, one of my worst worries is that they will find that you searched for something in Google to find out about some symptoms you were having. Google keeps your searches for a year and a half. In at least one case, search evidence has been used (to convict a person of murder), and there's no saying that it won't be used against you for a pre-existing condition recision some day.

Thus, as consumer advice, I have posted below a few relevant news stories.

Note that, I believe if you live in one of the 5 community-rated states and meet that states continuous-prior-coverage conditon when you apply for an individual comprehensive policy, you should not have to worry.

Note that the stories that I know of involve various Blue Crosses, Assurant, Wellpoint, and Golden Rule Insurance.

1) MOST DISTURBING IS THIS STORY, on video here, where we see executives of 3 Health Insurance Companies indicating an intention to continue the practice of rescinding policies on people even when the person with the policy (and big medical bills) did not intend any misrepresentation or fraud. (The story is in the first 10 minutes of the video.)

2) CALIFORNIA INSURER (BLUE CROSS) WRITES DOCTORS ASKING THEM TO LOOK FOR UNREPORTED PRE-EXISTING-CONDITIONS IN PATIENTS (So They Don't Have to Pay Claims on Pre-existing Conditions)
See story here.

3)CONNECTICUT ATTORNEY GENERAL POSTING ABOUT ASSURANT HEALTH INSURANCE DENYING CLAIMS IN BAD FAITH, CLAIMING A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION (related to Couric Story Above):
See the story, here.

NOTE: Though the main part of the Obama/Democratic-reform does not go into effect until 2014 (pretty much eliminating all pre-existing-conditions problems), there is a provision of it that is now, or soon to be, in effect, preventing the most blatant cases of insurers rescinding coverage due to honest mistakes on the part of the insured. Info on it is here.
However, do note that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has already voted to repeal all provisions of the Obama law (as here with House Member voting record here ). The Republicans have also initiated efforts to court-obstruct the law (as here. Thus, your security in even this currently-in-effect provision is limited.

NOTE: I've always found the pre-existing-screened system goofy, especially as the more medical and lab tests that come into existence, the less secure insurance becomes. A 60-year old person typically may have a doctor, dentist, or optometrist over his lifetime tell him or her about 100 or 150 little things that may become a reason for an insurance company to deny a claim after they've given you insurance, and you've faithfully paid the premiums, like in the 3 cases on this page. (The doctor may even have a questionable lab test result in his your folder that neglected to tell you about.) And its certainly all the more goofy as no other developed country in the world has pre-existing conditions issues for its people, and they all have pretty good healthcare at less cost to the economy than us. See these graphs.

Note that ALL PROPOSED REPUBLICAN REPLACEMENTS TO THE OBAMA LAW MAINTAIN THE PRE-EXISTING-CONDITION SCREENED SYSTEM,

and the new RYAN PLAN EXTENDS THE PRE-EXISTING-CONDITION-SCREENED-SYSTEM TO PEOPLE OVER 65 ON MEDICARE. Further, 98% of Republican House members, and 91% of Republican Senators, have already voted in favor of the Ryan Budget, with no Democrats joining them. (If interested in this, see here.)

Should one cheat, by leaving off pre-existing conditions on an insurance application? I can't endorse trying to cheat, as the better approach is fixing the system so no-one has to cheat. The fixing of the system is scheduled ror 2014, though as I've indicated elsewhere, people are trying to repeal the fixing legislation.

In any case, if you do cheat, and get a big medical claim, there's a good chance the insurer will find out. They likely can access your past medical records from the doctor's office, etc., and further, my understanding is that there may be a cross-insurer database of pre-existing conditions compiled from insurance claims. (The card below that I got from my previous insurer back in NY subtly indicates that they can use data in a cross-insurer database, in the circled area, under "medical underwriting"--"medical underwriting" means the same thing as "looking for pre-existing-conditions".)

Gee, I wonder how often people with symptoms that might be serious avoid going to the doctor or reporting their symptoms to a doctor, because they are afraid that their symptoms will become a pre-existing condition leading to higher insurance rates, no insurance, or insurance recision in the future? I wonder if this will be come more common if Medicare for people over 65 becomes pre-existing-conditions-screened, as proposed in the Republican-endorsed Ryan plan?