Health Care - Individual Health Care Plans and MS
Written by Mandy on October 26th, 2007 in Doctors, Family, General, Medications, State of Health Care.
You’ve been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. What happens to your health insurance coverage? The good news first:
HIPPA: If you or your spouse are eligible for group insurance from an employer, HIPPA laws protect you from exclusion from the group health plan due to your health status, nor can you be charged more in premiums.
COBRA: If you lose coverage due to separation, divorce, death or children leaving the plan due to age, you may elect coverage under COBRA for up to 36 months, or for up to 18 months due to loss of job.
What about when your COBRA period ends? What happens if you become partially disabled? What if you can only work part-time? What if your spouse is not eligible for group coverage? Now for the bad news:
Laws vary from state to state. In some states, the law does not require that insurers offer you coverage at all. In other states, coverage must be offered, but there is no limit on premiums they may charge. A few states have a high risk pool of some sort, others do not.
If your disability reduced you to part time work, could you afford $1,000 or more per month in health insurance premiums? How about if that $1,000 did not cover your prescribed MS medications, which have no generic and cost approximately $15,000 annually? Without health insurance, would your doctor still see you?
Fact: 47 million Americans, or 16 percent of the population, were without health insurance in 2005, the latest government data available. The number of uninsured rose 1.3 million between 2004 and 2005 and has increased by almost 7 million people since 2000.
Many are middle class people who have worked hard all their lives, paid their taxes, paid their health insurance premiums through the years, and have had a change of circumstance beyond their control. Help is not readily available for this group. Why, in America, do we allow such people to fall through the cracks? Why must millions of Americans, of all ages, be forced to choose between taking their prescribed medications and putting dinner on the table? It’s an unconscionable disgrace.
What are we, as concerned citizens, going to do about it?
MS Maze encourages you to weigh in with your thoughts on this important issue. All comments are welcome. If you are interested in doing a guest post regarding the State of Health Care in America, please email: mandycane@comcast.net
