Huckabee slams plan to ban insurers from denying coverage to sick people

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) this week blasted the Democrats' health reform law for its prohibition on health insurers denying patients based on pre-existing conditions.

Applying that logic to car insurance, Huckabee argued Friday, reveals the folly of the provision.

"How would you like to be able to call your insurance agent for your car and say, 'I want you to insure my car,'" Huckabee told an audience at the Value Voters Summit in Washington Friday. "'Well, tell me about your car.' 'Well, it was a pretty nice vehicle until my sixteen year-old boy wrecked it yesterday.'

"Now how much would a policy cost if it covered everything? About as much as it's gonna cost for health care in this country."

Huckabee extended the analogy to homeowners' insurance as well.  

"[Y]ou can call your insurance agent and say, 'I'd like to buy some insurance for my house,'" Huckabee said. "He'd say, 'Tell me about your house.' 'Well sir, it burned down yesterday, but I'd like to insure it today.' 

"And he'll say, 'I'm sorry, but we can't insure it after it's already burned.' Well, no preexisting conditions."

A central selling point for the Democrats' healthcare law was the so-called patients' bill of rights — a series of consumer protections designed to rein in the most controversial practices of the insurance companies. Among those reforms, plans — beginning on Sept. 23 — will no longer be able to deny coverage for kids based on pre-existing conditions. The prohibition extends to all populations in 2014. 

Huckabee, a GOP primary contender in the 2008 presidential election, currently hosts a program for the Fox News Channel.