Health Insurance 101
We get a lot of questions about health insurance. We're not experts, so we've turned to the folks at Kiplinger. They've put together a section on their site that will help you understand the "alphabet soup" of health care options that are available to you. Good luck out there.
What to Consider When Picking a Plan
Fee-for-Service Plan
Health Maintenance Organizations
Preferred-Provider Organizations
When You're on Your Own
When COBRA Kicks in
Take Advantage of Tax-Deferred Accounts
Understand Your Health Insurance Options [Kiplinger]
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But you will not be able to use said insurance as everything you have or ever will have is a "pre-existing condition."
Enjoy that health insurance.
I'm so glad that I live in a country that has free healthcare. I hadn't even heard of the term "pre-existing condition" until Michael Moore's movie. If I have a health problem, I get treatment, free of charge. Regardless of anything that has happened to me in the past.
Americans would be wise to vote for someone in the upcoming election that will attempt to put a better healthcare system into effect.
Thanks for posting this guys.
I signed up for the health insurance that is given by my job (I work at a 7-11 so sue me) and just found out they only cover about a $1,000 or so per year in medical expenses. Almost no prescription (They cover up to $300 in precriptions per year which is part of that $1,000 I mentioned before. And guess how much my medication for clinical depression costs? $300 a month), and generally sucky customer service when it comes to helping individuals with claims or questions regarding their insurance (They've gotten my address wrong on EVERY piece of mail they've sent me. I was lucky to even recieve it)
I work for a health insurance company...best advice I can give is not to listen to people like sexcpotatoes who talk without knowing. Instead, READ your benefit booklet and CALL your insurance's customer service and ask them any questions you have prior to using what you assume are your benefits. Those two simple steps would prevent my involvement in half of the customer complaints I deal with.
@mr_jrdn:
"Americans would be wise to vote for someone in the upcoming election that will attempt to put a better healthcare system into effect."
Not likely to happen because Americans are as dumb as a box of rocks. For proof, watch "Jesus Camp" now and monitor voter turn-out of 60 someodd % when the election rolls around in about 300 days.
In general, group health insurance plans define a pre-existing condition as anything that you sought treatment for or knew that you had a health issue with in the 6 months prior to joining the group health plan. A pre-existing condition is defined in individual health insurance as any type of medical issue in the last 10 years.
The BC/BS PPO offered by my employer (group plan) requires a pre-existing condition 365-day waiting period for newly eligible employees and covered dependents.
But - after a 365 day wait-out, one can be shocked to discover that benefits for many conditions are limited to 30 or fewer outpatients visits per year. Ha-ha, surprise!
Make no mistake - health insurance providers are profit-centered businesses. They do not care about the well-being of their individual policy holders.
Naomi suggests that things would be so much better if we would all just read our "benefit booklet prior to using what you assume are your benefits." Well maybe for her, but I WISH it were that easy for us on the other side of the equation.
If an insurance agent remarks over the phone that a condition in your policy is covered, they should be able to put that in writing for you. ALWAYS ask for it in writing. Right away you should ask them to fax over or email a summary of the benefit they just explained.
Also, a good rule to follow in all health-care doings is to NOT SIGN ANYTHING without fully understanding what you are signing, no matter how much coercion you are subjected to.
Thanks. I just got health insurance for the first time in about six or seven years and it's all Greek to me.