What’s a “Pre-existing condition”?

The GOP is again talking about just passed a “better” plan to replace the ACA, and thus, despite Trump’s “promises”, people are talking about the importance of not denying health insurance to people due to pre-existing conditions. You’re going to hear truly tragic stories about people surviving or not because of this, about people who would’ve been excluded from health insurance in the past and are now stable and productive members of society, about people being left to die because of lack of money or accident of birth.

I don’t have any such story. But I think it’s important to understand that we’re not just talking about multi-million-dollar expenses for comparatively rare conditions and tragic accidents. This used to be be far more widespread.