Anyone knowledgeable in this department? I've been laid off since January and lost my insurance Jan 31st. Applied for our income based health center and HIP and was denied for both because of my boyfriends income. It's quite frustratring as we are not married, he cannot add me to his insurance, yet they include his income because we live together.

My doctor has been extremely sweet, calling in refills for me, letting me come in once a month for a b/p and blood sugar check at no charge. She told me to 'dump my boyfriend for a day and reapply'. Wish I could, but I can't quite say I'm homeless.

I'd been getting by, but now am experiencing a rather alarming ailment that I would say needs fairly urgent attention. Not ER urgent, but it could become that way. ER with ni ins is a last resort, I just filed bankruptcy 2 yrs ago and am on my way to rebuilding.

I do have pre existing conditions, and I'm just not sure where to start looking.

I appreciate any advice!

Lynlee

You might check COBRA because there was, I believe, a 'look back' period where folks who had already given up their COBRA option as too expensive could qualify. The "American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009" covered folks laid off between September 2008 and December 2009 and offers a government subsidy of 65% of the cost of the insurance. You should have been notified of eligiblity around mid April and had 60 days to respond. If you were NOT notified, you need to explore your options.

The biggest problem with letting insurance lapse is that any new insurer is likely to have a full year of the new coverage before any pre-existing conditions will be covered.

...

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2009 02:36PM by surveygrrll.

But one of the real advantages of any health insurance, even with a very high deductible, is that you are eligible for their negotiated rates. I have a high deductible through AARP because I am quite healthy and want insurance only if something disastrous happens to avoid being wiped out or sent to bankruptcy. A few years ago I needed stitches after a home improvement snafu late on a Saturday night. The ER bill was something like $1400 plus the doc was another $450. I presented my health insurance and my ER bill dropped to $600 and the doc was $375 that I had to pay, even though the insurance company was not out a dime.

Flash, I have you pictured as the female version of the Dex guy on the commercials. Is there anything you don't know??

The "Dex guy"?

jjage Wrote:
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> Flash, I have you pictured as the female version
> of the Dex guy on the commercials. Is there
> anything you don't know??

Ah, you've found my weakness . . . I don't know what I don't know. I am like a sponge accumulating information. I do know that I know very little of foreign languages--foul language in Spanish, fumbling French and if my hands are tied I can't communicate in Italian at all.

On the other hand, realize that I spent a fair amount of my working career as a stock broker/financial planner so I did have to know a lot of product including insurance, real estate, and investments. Before that I was a teacher with science and mathematics as my specialties. And my first love was always botany and the environment. I have always sort of felt like a horizontal person in a vertical time--while others were specializing, I was a generalist in a broad number of areas. And I'm about equally likely to pull out the telescope as I am to sit down in front of the television on a starry night. And I'm more likely to watch financial news than local news and more likely to watch a cooking show than American Idol or some kind of series television.

dee shops Wrote:
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> The "Dex guy"?


Our Yellow Pages is called "Dex" and a goofy actor (Brian something, I dunno, he does a lot of Disney channel stuff) is THE "Dex" Guy....a nerdy looking man representing the phone book that sits on your counter. No offense Flash, but good God woman, I thought I was a fountain of useless knowledge...maybe thats the difference.....your knowledge is useful!

No knowledge is useless--it is dredging up that which is appropriate for the occasion that is of benefit. And frankly I find the chemical reactions of baking soda infinitely more interesting than who gets thrown off an island, or fat farm, or talentless contest.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2009 06:21AM by Flash.

Ya know, I was just thinking.

If The MSPA were to negotiate a group rate on health insurance, and offer it at an affordable price to MS'ers I imagine I would probably be willing to pay for certification, or buy a membership or whatever it is they do to get money from people.

Just look at the negotiating power they could have if they were to approach Blue Cross Blue Shield and tell them they had just the 300,000 shoppers nationwide that MFI claims to have registered.

Perhaps, but remember that the MSPA is an organization of the COMPANIES we work for, not of shoppers. There is a fair amount of paperwork to be processed for everybody in a health insurance plan and if MSPA thinks it is not worthwhile even to continue with the Shopper Conferences, I doubt seriously they would be interested in having an employee monitoring additions, deletions and payments to a health insurance plan.

I don't know your age or location, but if you are 50 or over you can get health insurance through AARP in many areas of the country by becoming a member ($35 for 3 years?). I run a high deductible plan through them that costs around $250 per month with a $5000 deductible. For a plan that looks more like what an employee plan would be, the cost would be around $1100 per month. Since I rarely spend more than $2000 per year on health care, my total cost per year comes to about $5000, whereas if I took the full coverage employee type plan my cost would be over $13,000. If, by some chance I DO get sick my cost would be the premiums (about $3000 per year) plus my deductible ($5000 per year) for a total of around $8000 to $9000 (still $4000 to $5000 less than the full coverage low deductible policy).

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Perhaps, but remember that the MSPA is an
> organization of the COMPANIES we work for, not of
> shoppers. There is a fair amount of paperwork to
> be processed for everybody in a health insurance
> plan and if MSPA thinks it is not worthwhile even
> to continue with the Shopper Conferences, I doubt
> seriously they would be interested in having an
> employee monitoring additions, deletions and
> payments to a health insurance plan.
>
> I don't know your age or location, but if you are
> 50 or over you can get health insurance through
> AARP in many areas of the country by becoming a
> member ($35 for 3 years?). I run a high
> deductible plan through them that costs around
> $250 per month with a $5000 deductible. For a
> plan that looks more like what an employee plan
> would be, the cost would be around $1100 per
> month. Since I rarely spend more than $2000 per
> year on health care, my total cost per year comes
> to about $5000, whereas if I took the full
> coverage employee type plan my cost would be over
> $13,000. If, by some chance I DO get sick my cost
> would be the premiums (about $3000 per year) plus
> my deductible ($5000 per year) for a total of
> around $8000 to $9000 (still $4000 to $5000 less
> than the full coverage low deductible policy).


AARP discriminates against younger retirees. I retired at 42, but AARP doesn't consider me a "retired person" until I turn 50. Go figure. I still have six years to go.

It sounds like a good plan though. Maybe in six years, if the health insurance crisis in the country still hasn't been solved, I can join.

There may be other plans that could be worked in similar ways. I do see stuff advertised on TV as $6 per day plans etc. But overall, if you aren't often ill it may make sense to use insurance as a catastrophic insurance (that really is what insurance was designed for) with a big deductible.

Well, I'm learning that looking for health insurance is a HUGE headache! The most decent option I've found is a $2000 deductible with no co pay, charge for office visits or prescriptions for $175 a month, I'm jst waiting to see if I get approved.

All the info they wanted was unbelievable! I cold not proceed with the application until I called medical records at the hospital to find out the exact date of operation and the name of the doctor who did the lumpectomy in 2002, or the same info about the colposcopic laser surgery in 1996!

I've also opened the door for a flood of phone calls from different providers. Somewhat helpful, but aggravating as well.

Lynlee

Just make sure you are cloear about what is and is not covered as a 'pre-existing condition' and how long you must carry the insurance for 'pre-existing' to no longer be an issue.

Thank you Flash for reminding me never to assume. The ehealthinsurance site has yo fill ot an application listing all preexisting conditions, any and all testing and surgeries or hospitalizations, and all medications I currently take. I *assumed* that the providers listed after that wolld accept me. I will look more closely to be sure.

I'm trying to find the one that balances best between deductible, co pay, office visit cost and prescription cost. I'm trying to figure out how much I pay a month for prescriptions and go from there.

You can be fairly certain that they will not cover pre-existing and the real question of how long before they will cover it. For my SO it was 1 year when he went back to work having had an uninsured period. You may have to bite the bullet and just pay into their system for a while before they will pay for treatments or prescriptions, but you at least should get their lower, negotiated rate in paying for those expenses yourself.