In honor of the new health care policy beginning to take effect, I thought I would write a few lines to help those who may now find themselves in the market to purchase health insurance.
One of the first things you will learn is they charge by the pound. After your age, the next questions ask will be height and weight. The skinner you are, up to a point, the cheaper your insurance will be if all other items are equal. It pays to get and stay in shape, not only for your health but also for your pocket book.
If you use tobacco in any form, that is going to cost you too. You will be paying for this pleasure not just in the form of taxes on nicotine containing products, but your health insurance premiums will take a definite jump. Most companies require that you be tobacco free for two years to get a savings.
If you are under the age of nineteen, insurance companies can no longer deny you coverage if you have a pre-existing condition. What the insurance company can do is charge you a higher premium for coverage. That seems to be a recurrening theme: Increasing insurance premiums.
Under the new law, in case you haven't figured it out, by the year 2014 you will be compelled to purchase insurance if you cannot get it through your job or a social service agency (Medicare or Medicaid). However, when you purchase an individual policy it is going to cost you a lot more money than it would have previously. The average premiums will take a 20 to 40 percent jump. This is to cover the cost of manditory preventative care.
Who are the big winners in the new health care policy? I believe it is obvious. The industry with the biggest lobby in Washington and also probably your state capitol: Insurance companies.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Take the money and run
I called my health insurance carrier because I received a letter stating I was eligible to continue my health care coverage on an individual policy when my COBRA terminates in 2 months. It was mailed to my home address in Great Big State. With hope I called to initiate this conversion. After giving my name, social security number, and home address, I was told "you are not eligible."
"Well, then why does the letter say that I am eligible?" I replied.
"I don't know but you live in Big State. Any one who lives there is not eligible." said the voice on the other end of the line.
"Well your company mailed me this letter, to my home address in Big State. Did someone at your company think I did not live in Big State, I mean, I have been receiving bills and making payments from this address for the last 16 months?" I asked.
"I don't know about that but you are not eligible, I don't care what the letter you have says."
Who do I believe? The person who mailed the letter or the one on the telephone. I can tell you this, after searching for health insurance for over a year, there is not an honest person out there associated with an insurance company. The insurance industry holds are the cards and the Affortable Health Care Act dealt them a sweet hand. While health care is now becoming a requirement, I am not sure it is something the middle class will be able to afford.
Until this country is ready to do something about the insurance industry who has the largest lobby in both Washington DC and your local state house, they will continue to take our money and work hard not to pay for care.
"Well, then why does the letter say that I am eligible?" I replied.
"I don't know but you live in Big State. Any one who lives there is not eligible." said the voice on the other end of the line.
"Well your company mailed me this letter, to my home address in Big State. Did someone at your company think I did not live in Big State, I mean, I have been receiving bills and making payments from this address for the last 16 months?" I asked.
"I don't know about that but you are not eligible, I don't care what the letter you have says."
Who do I believe? The person who mailed the letter or the one on the telephone. I can tell you this, after searching for health insurance for over a year, there is not an honest person out there associated with an insurance company. The insurance industry holds are the cards and the Affortable Health Care Act dealt them a sweet hand. While health care is now becoming a requirement, I am not sure it is something the middle class will be able to afford.
Until this country is ready to do something about the insurance industry who has the largest lobby in both Washington DC and your local state house, they will continue to take our money and work hard not to pay for care.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Changing the world
Since it is Monday and the beginning of a new school year for many, I am thinking about the impact each of us has on the world. When I was younger, middle school and high school, my greatest desire was to make some world changing discovery. A cure for a deadly disease or an invention to ease human suffering was my goal.
With time and age, by about my second year of college, I realized these types of discoveries where a combination of brilliance and luck. Since I possessed neither in large quantities, I settled down to the slow, grinding task of preparing myself for medical school. In another couple of years, I realized that some combination of brilliance and luck were required for medical school admission also. Since I was short on the first, I would have to say it was the second of those two commodities which landed me in that now Well-Known Medical College of the south.
Getting back to change, it seems it comes in one of two forms. Change is either slow and insidious, something we are not able to appreciate in our life time. A physical example of this is the Grand Canyon. Or change is cataclysmic, the death of the dinosaurs (and many other forms of life) in a short span of time.
In the last 18 months, I have learned I am not going to have any type of meteoric change on the health care system, even in Major Metropolitan City. Hopefully, however, I am making some type of difference in the landscape, at least where the lives of my patients and colleagues are concerned.
With time and age, by about my second year of college, I realized these types of discoveries where a combination of brilliance and luck. Since I possessed neither in large quantities, I settled down to the slow, grinding task of preparing myself for medical school. In another couple of years, I realized that some combination of brilliance and luck were required for medical school admission also. Since I was short on the first, I would have to say it was the second of those two commodities which landed me in that now Well-Known Medical College of the south.
Getting back to change, it seems it comes in one of two forms. Change is either slow and insidious, something we are not able to appreciate in our life time. A physical example of this is the Grand Canyon. Or change is cataclysmic, the death of the dinosaurs (and many other forms of life) in a short span of time.
In the last 18 months, I have learned I am not going to have any type of meteoric change on the health care system, even in Major Metropolitan City. Hopefully, however, I am making some type of difference in the landscape, at least where the lives of my patients and colleagues are concerned.
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