health insurance

Recently got an email suggesting that we discuss health care and what happens when you get knocked off your parents plan. It went a little something like this:

"so you guys should do a post for those who are over 23 and don't have insurance from a job or parent and has diabetes what the hell you did to afford life still. As having just turned 23 and being turned down EVERYWHERE even by the stupid company that has covered me for the past 23 years (10 that have been diabetic). I know about the State of Oregon plan but it is less then average and still retardly expensive. Any hints or tips or general advice would be tight."

These are the sorts of problems that arise when a country's medical decisions are run for profit. Not that great things also don't come out of it - there is little question that America is a world leader in health care change, finding cures, treatment in ERs (even though it rarely feels like it), etc, but it is not beneficial at all for an insurance company to take on a diabetic, cancer patient, etc. This is why you get Michael Moore's "SICKO."

And to be honest with you, I don't have a whole lot of suggestions. I know it's a bad idea to be off of health insurance, especially because then your condition can be called previously existing. As long as you have a plan that protects you and covers the medication that you need, your next subscriber must pick up where the last one left off. However, if you, for any reason, lose your plan, the next provider does not have to pay for your costs because the condition was present before you came to them.

If you have a job, but are looking for a new one you should ask your HR people about COBRA. It's not cheap. At all. Basically you can keep the current health care plan that you have, but you must pay for all of it. Usually your employer picks up most of the tab, and you pay for the plan that you want (HMO, PPO, etc). It's a terrible option, but at least you can remain fully covered. So with that being said, I wonder if you can legitimately be turned down by your current/former provider. I would look into that.

And as this is an election year, and health care as been an increasingly important discussion point amongst the candidates, I think it's critical that we all know as much as we can about what their points of view are on the nature of how health care should be run.

OBAMA

CLINTON

MCCAIN

Here is also a website that lays them out side by side. Not sure if they have an affiliation, but just make sure you read through carefully and get yourself informed.

There has been a lot of discussion about this in our office - politics often times take over for basketball, especially after loses. My colleague Pete Schwethelm came up with, what I think is a great way to describe the way health care should operate in our country. He believes that the postal service has it right. There is a basic plan (USPS) that everyone can partake in. It may not be the best option, but everyone can use it. If you feel that you need something more, better, faster there are other options (Fed-Ex, UPS).

The same could work for a health care system that has a basic outline for everyone, and if you feel you need better coverage, well that cost comes out of your own pocket then. It certainly doesn't lessen the blow for people like us - we'll still be paying top dollar, but at the very least, there is something out there.

Let us know which of the candidate's plans you like the best, and as always, please back your response with some reasons.