Originally posted by: JD50
Originally posted by: TallBill
Originally posted by: shadow9d9
Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
Originally posted by: retrospooty
Originally posted by: quest55720
More change we can believe in. I can see Obama making private insurance so un desirable he can ram through his shitty UHC.
What change? I've just seen more of the same but with better sounding speeches.
I believe in it, and welcome the change =)
Cruddy UHC that'll allow our "pre-existing conditions" to actually be covered and maybe my healthcare won't cost 17% of my salary for catastrophic only insurance!?
Either you fail at finding insurance or you make $600 a month.
shadow9d9 pops up in all of these threads with the same sob story. Now, I do feel for him and the situation that he's in, but I'm getting a little tired of him using his rare circumstance to justify massive spending in the form of UHC.
You don't know what you're talking about. shadow9d9's circumstance is not at all rare.
It's estimated that between a third and a quarter of people not covered by group policies who seek individual coverage cannot get it at any price. Insurance companies "cherry pick" applicants, and reject people for all sorts of common pre-existing conditions.
The only option for these people is so-called "high-risk" pools offered by some states. Unfortunately, such pools don't exist in all states, and even those states that have them have long waiting lists.
The only short-cut is if you're HIPAA-eligible (meaning that you used to be covered by a group plan, got continuation coverage under COBRA, and have exhausted your COBRA coverage). Under federal law, states must provide HIPAA continuation coverage without waiting periods to anyone who is HIPAA-eligible.
And here's a kicker: If you're covered under HIPAA continuation coverage, and want to move to another state, that new state may not offer reciprocity. Meaning that as soon as you move, you lose your health insurance.
In other words, health coverage in the U.S. is royally fucked up. At the very least, the following changes should be implemented:
If a person is covered under a group plan and loses or leaves the company, insurance companies should be REQUIRED to offer continuation coverage under COBRA for as long as the person wants it (not the current 18-month COBRA limit), at the same price (plus nominal administrative costs). And this coverage should "travel" with the person wherever they go.
Insurance companies should be required to offer individual policies equivalent to the group plans they offer, at a similar price (plus the added cost of administering to individuals rather than groups), to anyone who wants it, without the person having to pass a medical exam. That is, no cherry-picking, and pre-existing conditions would be covered.
The two changes I've indicated above would also solve the problem of pre-existing conditions. If ALL insurers were required to offer coverage at the same price to all comers, they would have to build pre-existing conditions into the cost of the policies. But because it would be a competitive market, premiums would be held down.
Note also that those who don't have health insurance still get medical care. So we pay for them whether they do or don't have insurance. Thus, forcing insurers to cover them would not raise premiums much, since current health care costs already factor in the uninsureds among us.
The advantage would be that fewer of us would face random bankruptcies because we couldn't get coverage at any price, and were unlucky enough to get a serious and expensive medical problem while in that state.
Of course, the problem of people who can't afford health insurance is a whole other issue . . . .