When Healthcare Hits home..

[Dark Raven]

Ok so this is my healthcare rant!

So I was in corporate america for a long time. I started working for a Corporation when I was 19, still in college and have had back to back corporate jobs until this year. I always took healthcare for granted because I was never in a position to have healthcare insurance.

I started my business, Raven Moonlight, 4 years ago - working full-time in my corporate job. About 2 years ago, I was able to go part-time and still retain my healthcare benefits. Now, thankfully, my business has grown so much that I really don't have the time for the corporate job anymore - so I decided to leave that job. Even though I will make a lot less now with my business, I will be much happier because I love what I do and I won't have to get up at 3AM anymore when something breaks on the other side of the country!

Before I left, I spoke with HR to find out the COBRA payments for healthcare. I was in the hospital four times last year for blood transfusions due to severe anemia (most of it my fault, since I could probably prevent it with a better diet, taking my vitamins and actually remembering to eat!), being without health insurance is risky for me - it wouldn't be the end of the world, but I would feel better with it.

When I called they quoted me a premium of $270 a month, which seemed incredibly reasonable. So I was thrilled, I could work my business full time and still have health insurance - at least for 18 months then after that I would try to get a personal plan.

Well the nightmare started about a week after I left the company. The COBRA info they quoted me was wrong - so when they sent me the official paperwork, it ended up being $560 a month instead of $270. Well, needless to say I had a heart attack - this was not in my budget! I started calling different carriers to get a quote on a private plan and got even more discouraged when I found out that NONE of them would insure me - for any cost - because I had a Gastric Bypass surgery 3 years ago!

Apparently if I was overweight, with high blood pressure and diabetic I would be insurable. Since I am fairly thin and fairly healthy now (as long as I remember to eat), I am uninsurable. They didn't even know about the Anemia - it was just the minute we got to Gastric Bypass part it was immediately declined. So my only choice now is to take the COBRA for the $560 a month and then after that, hope that I can get into some type of healthcare due to HIPA regulations (my insurance agent explained it all to me, she said if I take the COBRA for 18 months they HAVE to insure me after that), which will be even more expensive than the $560 a month the cobra will cost me now - since HIPA is mandated by the state.

I grew up in Brazil - a 3rd world country - and even in that country, with all its problems - every person in the country has a right to Healthcare! Why can't we do the same thing here! What really upsets me, is that if I didn't have the COBRA option I wouldn't be able to get any healthcare at all - since they won't even consider me because of a surgery I had 3 years ago that has actually made me healthier than I used to be!

So I guess now healthcare is an important issue for me. I don't mind paying for it - although I don't want to go broke paying for it - but the rules are so strict that people in my situation, with relatively few healthcare problems - don't even have the option to have insurance. I am taking the COBRA for the next 18 months and I hope that Obama comes up with something to help people in situations similar to mine!

[cristina colon]

I agree with you 100%! i am in the nursing career and i see it everyday. If you think that's bad, you have to watch the documentary by michael moore called "sicko". It will seriously disturb you as to how america treats their citizens. Obama is trying to institute a Universal heaslthcare plan but like they did to hillary clinton whaen she tried , there acting as if he didn't say anything, why? to instill a Universal healthcar plan, that means that the politicians who approve these hmo's, the prescription meds, general care won't get their 300,000$ bonus at x-mas time, or the doc's who push unnecessary meds on their pt.s so the drug company can give them alot of $ for referring their drugs! Unfortunately America has turned into a get rich quick scheme and the people who aren't as shady get left to fall in the cracks. That is one topic that gets me heated. i don't know what that lady was talking about cobra and hipaa because hipaa is just a regulation stating your personal information is to be handeled carefully and not to be shared with people outside of the medical facility you attend. hippa stands for - HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT- passed in august 1996- there are 5 diffrent rules and scenerios as to keep medical records confidential. That is hipaa i have know idea why she would put your hipaa and cobra together? but i wish you the all the best and i hope you get this settled. BUT PLEASE EAT AND EAT YOUR GREENS! you are most important! i hear vitamin b-12 is helpful for anemia. i am fully aware of how bad it can get. Please take care of yourself dark raven.
BLESSED BE,
CRISTINA

[Dark Raven]

Well according to what she explained to me - as far as NC regulations are concerned, if I exhaust my COBRA benefits, under HIPAA rules, the insurance company HAS to offer me a plan. It can be an obscenely expensive plan - but they cannot deny me. That's what she said and I am hoping its true. If not, at least I have 18 months to see if Obama does anything to help me out =)

To be honest, after having to go into the hospital last year several times for a blood transfusion, I will gladly take whatever vitamins the doctor wants me to! lol! I had no idea that such a thing as prescription strength vitamins existed but they do and they have helped me out a lot - I don't miss a dose!

If I never see that transfusion needle again I will be thrilled - I don't think I had ever seen a needle that big ever!