Fox's Brit Hume: Covering patients with pre-existing conditions 'defeats the whole idea of insurance'

During a discussion on the GOP's healthcare plan designed to replace Obamacare, longtime Fox contributor Britt Hume criticized compelling insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions, reports Media Matters.

Speaking with "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace and Obamacare architect Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Hume called coverage of those with pre-exisiting conditions, not a "triumph" but problematic, like insuring a driver who has a car wreck in their past.

"The triumph of Obamacare is this coverage for pre-existing conditions, which basically defeats the whole idea of insurance," Hume suggested. "Which is, for example, in the automobile insurance market, if you could wait until you had a wreck and then buy insurance and have the repairs covered, that's comparable to what we're doing here."

Emanuel attempted to interject saying, "But Brit, if I have cancer --," only to be cut off by the Fox personality.

"Hold on, let me finish. Can I please finish?" Hume exclaimed. "The idea of insurance is that you purchase it to guard against risks and things that may occur in the future. It's not that you purchase the coverage after you are already sick. Once that idea is gone, Obamacare essential remains."

Given a chance to speak, Emanuel attempted to explain the dilemma to Hume.

"If I have cancer through no fault of my own, I didn't hit a car, I need to have insurance to cover me. This bill does nothing for those people," he lectured. "It only makes the price of their insurance ever higher. Cancer patients and patients with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease get completely written out of coverage by this bill."

Watch the video below via Media Matters: