Ziggy....
There are ways to address adverse selection... and also address the fears people have... but these still do not address the costs..
Right now, I am in a small company and the price of health care insurance with a $4K deductible is almost $1,100 per month for a family policy... not cheap...
So, what can be done to address the fears of people...
If you have health insurance, they can not take it away from you if you get sick... period..
If you have health insurance, they can not raise the cost if you get sick..
You can move from plan to plan without pre-existing conditions... (note... not start a new policy, move...)
You can have pre-existing conditions excluded from a plan if you have not had a plan in the last... fill in the blank for a time period... say 3 months, 6 months... something... this eliminates the adverse selection process...
After a certain amount of time, all pre-existing conditions go away if you no longer have the problem... say you had cancer when you were 30 and did not have insurance.. and it is gone... no sign for 30 years... should you have that excluded
I think not...
So there is a lot of insurance reform that can be done... but still, not addressing the cost part... until we get clear knowledge of costs, and have some skin in the game, nothing will be done...