The health insurance company has requested medical records for our new private insurance plan to replace COBRA. This should be exciting.
I was last treated for asthma nine months ago, with a refill for the lowest-dose-possible inhaler. That should be an exciting record to review.
Senor Dog had some eczema last year. Don't want to pick anyone up with serious conditions!
I wonder if this is just a delay tactic. It would really suck to have gone through all this and then have to wait another month to get denied by some other company.
If we can't get insured, and if we have this much red tape, I'm not sure who can get insured. Honestly, if we get rejected, it will be even worse than getting rejected for a mortgage. I can't even think about it emotionally.
Monday, July 20, 2009
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6 comments:
It's worse than you think.
My understanding is that once you are rejected for heath insurance, that rejection is part of your permanent history.
That makes it more likely no one else will insure you ar fair rates.
Again, this is my understanding. I do not know this to be true beyond doubt.
They usually don't reject you for minor things, but two things will happen. One the rate will go up from whatever they quoted you. Then they'll specifically exclude those conditions from coverage. If they exclude the risk factors, why do they charge a higher rate as well??? That is what happened to me when I had private insurance, I had been diagnosed with carpal tunnel years earlier though I never sought any treatment for it. Insurance charged me a rate 3 times what I had been quoted and excluded anything related to CT. I hope it goes OK for you.
that seems like a lot of hoop jumping. i've never had to do that when getting new insurance… which I've done twice in the past two years.
Yeah, it's kinda bad to get rejected - I've been twice, and it was upsetting. I don't even have any chronic conditions. Like Mark said, I have also heard it goes on your permanent record (supposedly retained by some organization in Boston - it's been a while since I've done the research). I was forced to continue Cobra - luckily it was only $300 at the time (2002).
Just prepare yourself. It's possible you'll just get your rates increased but be accepted. My friend had the same type of plan (catastrophic) but they increased her rates because of an ear infection the previous year.
Those horrible ear infections - must mean you're near death if you have an ear infection [sarcasm]. People don't understand the magnitude of the health insurance problems in the US until they deal with this stuff firsthand. After my ordeal, I said, "Nationalized health care, please!"
are you going through a broker or did you apply directly with an insurer? i will have to go through this process in the near future and from the sounds of your experience, i'm so not looking forward to it.
@ Ms Moneychat: I used esurance, an online broker. They have a good comparison of the policies and a good interface to fill out the forms.
That said, I might just straight to the insurer next time. I'm not sure. I don't think there really is a good way to do it.
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