Some health care rules defy logic

A new one to me about what the health care industry considers a "pre-existing condition:"- spousal abuse.

You read that right, spousal abuse. If a spouse is beaten badly enough to require medical care, eight states allow health insurance companies to deny that care. Their logic: if it's the first time, it will happen again so it's a "pre-existing condition," and if it happened before, it's self-evident that it's a "pre-existing condition."

In 2006, Senate Democrats attempted to introduce legislation that would prevent this denial of care, but were blocked in committee by 10 Republican senators. Apparently for these 10 senators, health care company profits are more important than someone receiving medical care after being beaten by their spouse.

To me this is twisted logic, an example of profits over morals.

Adam Smith, professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow University, wrote in his seminal work "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" that man can exist only in society for "[a]ll stand in need of each other's assistance ... bound together by the agreeable bands of love and affection."

Yes, it's official. Professor Smith is now spinning in his grave.

Tom Bartlett-Svehla

Mundelein