Health Care Reform: Your Questions Answered

[okarol]

Health Care Reform: Your Questions Answered
Do you want to know more about the new health care reform changes that will apply to coverage on or after Sept. 23, 2010? Watch as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius answers questions from WebMD readers.

http://women.webmd.com/health-care-reform/default.htm?ecd=soc_tw

[MooseMom]

As stepmom to FOUR college aged kids who will soon be out looking for employment, I am very grateful that we'll be able to carry them on our insurance until they're 26 should the need arise!

[Riki]

I was watching Obama's "Backyard Barbecue" speech yesterday on MSNBC, and just as a woman asked a question I wanted to know the answer to, about what the new reforms will mean to someone without health insurance, they cut to commercial and never came back.  I was not impressed.

[MooseMom]

I was watching Obama's "Backyard Barbecue" speech yesterday on MSNBC, and just as a woman asked a question I wanted to know the answer to, about what the new reforms will mean to someone without health insurance, they cut to commercial and never came back.  I was not impressed.

This is exactly the population that the reforms are supposed to help.  MSNBC should be flogged for cutting to a commercial break at that time; how stupid!

Go to www.healthcare.gov and perhaps you can get some of your questions answered.  Some of the new provisions won't be taking effect until 2014, however.

[okarol]

As stepmom to FOUR college aged kids who will soon be out looking for employment, I am very grateful that we'll be able to carry them on our insurance until they're 26 should the need arise!

You can add them, but it will most likely cost you.
http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=20052.0

[MooseMom]

Nope, not on our current plan through my husband's employer.  The stepkids are already covered; it's not like they are being added.

[okarol]

Nope, not on our current plan through my husband's employer.  The stepkids are already covered; it's not like they are being added.

They are college age but are they in college? Insurance plans already covered college students, just not everyone else.
The reporter who wrote the story said that some insurance companies will tag on a fee, like adding a driver to your auto insurance. But it will probably begin next year. I am glad the covereage is available, my son James is 22, working part time and not in college, so it's a huge relief to know he is covered.

[Riki]

I was watching Obama's "Backyard Barbecue" speech yesterday on MSNBC, and just as a woman asked a question I wanted to know the answer to, about what the new reforms will mean to someone without health insurance, they cut to commercial and never came back.  I was not impressed.

This is exactly the population that the reforms are supposed to help.  MSNBC should be flogged for cutting to a commercial break at that time; how stupid!

Go to www.healthcare.gov and perhaps you can get some of your questions answered.  Some of the new provisions won't be taking effect until 2014, however.

I'm Canadian, so it's not like I need it right away anyway, but my plan is to move to the NYC area after I get a kidney to go to university and/or pursue a comical writing career, so I'll need health insurance then.  I"m wondering how difficult it will be for someone like myself to get health insurance.

[MooseMom]

Okarol, yes, they are already in college, so we already pay for them.  In our case, their coverage will just be extended to age 26 if they don't have their own insurance via a job.  Better than a stick in the eye!

Riki, I don't know the answer to your question, but the whole point of the reform is to enable anyone who wants insurance to get it and that you won't be denied because of a pre-existing condition.  I am not sure how each individual state will implement these reforms.

[cariad]

I think the "without health insurance" crowd is the easiest to answer. If you've been 6 months without insurance and have been denied individual insurance based on a pre-existing condition, you will have an insurance option. I think that eventually the six month provision vanishes.

Riki, I saw some of that Obama talk, but missed the portion to which you refer. I turned it in disgust at how moronic these people are. A woman claiming she has a neighbour who has a relative who needed a heart op in England and was put on a TEN YEAR waiting list? *cough* bulls--t *cough* She may have been the same woman who rambled so long that Obama had to say "I'm trying to figure out what you're afraid of." From the small bit I saw, these people made no effort to educate themselves and so the President of the United States has to hold their hands and talk them through it. Ridiculous.

As for university or a career - universities give their students health plans that range from excellent to why-bother. Some employers offer health insurance, and with those, you cannot be discriminated against based on a pre-existing condition. Everyone pays the same for the same coverage. So, my husband pays the same amount for himself, his kidney-defective wife, and his two kids as the family who simply glow with health. In the group insurance world, it's almost as if we are worthwhile human beings! Crazy but true!

[Riki]

yeah, I think the 10 year wait list was a load of bull too.  We have wait lists her, but I've never seen any more than 2 years, and if you happen to get worse while waiting, you get bumped up.

[RightSide]

I'm Canadian, so it's not like I need it right away anyway, but my plan is to move to the NYC area after I get a kidney to go to university and/or pursue a comical writing career, so I'll need health insurance then.  I"m wondering how difficult it will be for someone like myself to get health insurance.

Starting in 2014, all insurers will be required to accept every applicant, regardless of a pre-existing condition.

If you come to the U.S. before 2014, the health reforms do provide a stopgap measure for folks like yourself with pre-existing conditions:  High-risk insurance pools, set up by each state on a state-by-state basis.  These vary widely in premiums, so you need to find out how much the New York State pool will charge you.  I don't know how much it is in NY, but I do know that in some states it's as high as $800 per month.  So you should definitely inquire before moving to NY.

Another bureaucratic obstacle with these high-risk pools is that to qualify, you must have already been turned down for insurance by at least one private insurer--and you must have gone without insurance for at least 6 months.  For someone like yourself, who will be on Canada's single-payer till you come to the United States, you would actually have to forgo Canada's insurance, apply to some random U.S. insurer, get turned down, and pay your medical expenses out of pocket for 6 months--all before you can get high-risk pool insurance!

[Riki]

I have no intentions of moving while on dialysis. The centre that I go to when I visit charges $400US per treatment, and that's without medications like venofer or aranesp, or even bandaids.  They don't provide those. Either you have your own, or you pay for them.  I bring my own, Sureseals that the unit here gives me.  I can't afford to have more than 2 treatments while I'm there, so I'd never last 6 months.  After transplant, however, I can probably go at least 3 months before things start getting hairy