What About Uninsurables Under Health Reform?

One of my biggest concerns with health insurance today is the problem of uninsurables. That’s why Obama’s (and the Democrats) support of health reform was always attractive to me. I always believed that the biggest problem, and one that should be addressed first, were people who could not obtain medical coverage because they were already sick. I have seen this impact people, and I have seen how destructive it can be.

But I just read an article that says that the current bill will not allow these people access to the public high risk plan unless they have been without coverage for 12 months. This is just awful, and should start setting off alarm bills.

Here are problems that people have with current state high risk insurance programs:

• People with a serious illness have maxed out their benefits, even though they are technically covered. Yes, this can (and does) happen all of the time with serious illnesses like cancer.  You may have coverage through a private or group medical plan, but you can exhaust your plan max for all treatment, or for particular types of treatment. This happens a lot with expensive outpatient treatments like chemotherapy. Do you know what your own plan’s outpatient coverage limit is? Lots of people do not know until it becomes a problem!
• What about a seriously ill person who has only lost coverage in the last 3 months (an arbitray number), but need like saving treatment today?  For seriously ill people, waiting 3 months is a death sentance. What are they thinking?

This article in Yahoo outlines the problem, and addresses a specific individual with cancer.

“If you are a cancer patient and have cancer now, you can’t wait six months to go into a plan because your condition can go from bad to death,” said Stephen Finan, a policy expert with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. He called the waiting period in the Senate bill “unacceptable.”

Please Question the Uninsurable Coverage Waiting Period!

Please let your representative hear your voice. Let them know that this waiting period makes this plan just about useless as a safety net, and then hear what they have to say!

 As for myself, I am struck dumb with outrage.

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3. Long Term Care Health Insurance and Health Reform