Last night, one of our dinner guests said that at least we no longer have to worry about "pre-existing conditions." Persnickety about language as always, I pointed out that the phrase "pre-existing condition" was a ridiculous piece of jargon. What is meant is "existing conditions?" A condition can't exist before it exists.
"Aha," said another of my guests, a Lutheran minister,"now you've opened a theological questions." He was referring to the disputed doctrine that the existence of Jesus preceded his incarnation in the womb.
But if "pre-existence" is only taken seriously by theologians and by insurance executives, then I'm going to stand on my claim that the phrase is both obscurantist or bureaucratic and should be discarded from common use. "Existing" is sufficient.
Moreover, the notion that insurance should be granted to the healthy but denied to the ill is a more dangerous travesty than the mystification of "pre-existence."
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