Tips for getting insurance when you have a pre-existing condition (CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Elizabeth Cohen
CNN Senior Medical Correspondent

(CNN) -- Nineteen-year-old Stuart Wald is not likely to grow out of his schizophrenia, bipolar disease and attention-deficit disorder. But he will, with 100 percent certainty, grow out of the health insurance coverage he has through his father's employer -- and that day is just a few years away.

The Walds (not their real name) know he'll never get insurance on his own because he has not just one but three pre-existing conditions. Without insurance, it will cost the Walds thousands of dollars a month for his treatment and care.

If Stuart could get insurance through his own employer, that would solve the problem. With "group insurance," you can't be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. But millions of people can't get insurance through a job for a variety of reasons: They're self-employed, or their employer doesn't offer health insurance, or, like Stuart, they're too sick to work.
***
Here's another piece of advice, offered somewhat tongue in cheek: Move to Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York or Vermont.

"In those states, everyone has to sell to you," said Cheryl Fish-Parcham, deputy director of health policy at Families USA. Not only do insurance companies have to sell you a policy in those states, there are limits on how much they can charge you, she says.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/14/preexisting.condition.insurance/index.html




Kind of a short list of tips, which are obviously not useful to everyone. The info on state high-risk pools looked most useful, IMHO, although the link on CNN's page (ON EDIT http://www.diabetes.org/advocacy-and-legalresources/healthcare/healthinsurance/high-risk-pool-table.jsp ). There is contact info for other organizations as well.

[sandnsea]

1. OR high-risk pool is $500+

Per person. So hubby and I are $1,000 month and it'll only keep going up as we age and as rates increase. We have a subsidy or we wouldn't have insurance at all. High risk pools are better than nothing, but not a long term solution.

[Justitia]

2. That is ridiculous advice. Sure, just transplant yourself across the country & look for a job.

I could go on and on and on with all the things that are wrong with that argument.

A seriously ill person cannot just pick up and transplant their lives in the dim hope of insurance coverage in a different location.

Fuck, if they could do that, they'd go to Canada.

These people are totally clueless as to real life.