Correct. and no one is going to make a contract with a term longer than a year. The idea of buying insurance when you're young and healthy and keeping it when you get old and have issues is not an option.
I was about to ask if you just make this stuff up then I realized that what you are doing is stating conjecture as if it were confirmed fact. I have no doubt that based on your expectations of the world you believe this to be fact.
However here is a quote describing such a policy:
"A noncancellable individual health insurance plan is one that will cover you as long as you continue to pay the monthly premiums."
You will note that it says a noncancellable policy cannot be canceled
as long as you pay.
Read more: Can an Individual Health Insurance Policy Be Canceled? | eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/info_8378590_can-health-insurance-policy-canceled.html#ixzz1Zv4lIkZZ
http://www.ehow.com/info_8378590_can-health-insurance-policy-canceled.html
Here is an actual definition:
"Definition of "Noncancellable Policy"
A policy that guarantees you can receive insurance, as long as you pay the premium. It is also called a guaranteed renewable policy."
http://www.totalreturnannuities.com/annuity-glossary/n/noncancellable-policy.html
Here is a second definition from a business dictionary:
"noncancellable insurance policy
insurance contract that cannot be cancelled by the insurance company . Since the insurance policy is a unilateral contract instead of a bilateral contract , the insured may cancel at will. Only the insurer makes a promise of future performance and only the insurer can be charged with breach of contract."
Source:
http://www.allbusiness.com/glossaries/noncancellable-insurance-policy/4957354-1.html#ixzz1Zv5dU184
In the countries most regulated industry one would expect that the word noncanellable would mean noncancellable and in this case it actually does.
So, is it possible that a young and healthy person would buy a policy and keep it until they are old? Read this:
Pursuant to 26 CFR 1.801-3 (c) ...Noncancellable Life, Health, or Accident Insurance Policy means “a health and accident contract, or a health and accident contract combined with a life insurance or annuity contract, which the insurance company is under an obligation to renew or continue at a specified premium and with respect to which a reserve in addition to the unearned premiums (as defined in paragraph (e) of this section) must be carried to cover that obligation. Such a health and accident contract shall be considered noncancellable even though it states a termination date at a stipulated age, if, with respect to the health and accident contract, such age termination date is 60 or over. Such a contract, however, shall not be considered to be noncancellable after the age termination date stipulated in the contract has passed. However, if the age termination date stipulated in the contract occurs during the period covered by a premium received by the life insurance company prior to such date, and the company cannot cancel or modify the contract during such period, the age termination date shall be deemed to occur at the expiration of the period for which the premium has been received.”
http://definitions.uslegal.com/n/no...r-accident-insurance-policy-internal-revenue/
It appears that the law covering such policies expects that some may keep a policy until age 60 unless the person is already old when they take the contract in which case they company must honor it anyway.
Can a person who gets one of these when they are young keep it until they are old? Yes. Can he keep it until he is really old? probably not. But we should bear in mind that the stated intent of these polcies is to cover individuals while they are waiting to be enrolled in group policies. Surely, 20, 30, 40 years is enough time for a person to find a way to get a group policy.
[if anyone wonders why the facts I post are so often right and so rarely wrong it is because BEFORE I make a post that includes a fact I usually do an internet search to verify what I am about to say. Most of those times I also bookmark the source so I can later prove that I don't just make stuff up or commit the less serious offense of posting conjecture as fact. The belief that conjecture is fact is imo the most common logical error of our time]