I remember “pre-existing condition” exclusions. Insurance companies hired teams of investigators who would comb through the medical histories of patients who made expensive claims (like chemotherapy). They would find something, anything, in that person’s medical history that they could claim was “pre-existing”, from some time prior to being covered, and deny the claim. Often this was done in full knowledge that the denial could be appealed. But they also had statistics that if that patient died from their disease the family was unlikely to pursue an appeal.
Having a gap of any length of time in your insurance history could be devastating. I had to buy personal insurance once during this time (circa 2001). I was young with no medical conditions and in good health, and it was $160 a month with a deductible so high it was basically worthless except for catastrophic emergencies. I was making $8.50 an hour at the time. But it prevented me from having a gap in coverage that could be used later, perhaps many years later, to deny claims.
Of course the only solution that’s politically viable is apparently a giant subsidy to capital. Same with Section 8. Same with education loans. We’re incapable of anything else it seems.
Insurance companies still do many versions of this with a byzantine coding system, complex “out of network” exclusions, etc. Anything to deny a claim. It’s a capitalist version of a “work-to-rule” slowdown, where they can make new rules. Since it’s your health they can afford to wait forever. The asymmetry favors them. It’s about as close as you can get to directly chucking human bodies into a furnace to power a money machine and still maintain a veil of propriety. True evil. If there was any justice in the world, the food that these executives bought would turn to ash in the mouths of their children.