Can You Keep Your Medical Insurance

A good percentage of voters believe that the health care crisis in the United States affects and will affect others. They have always had health insurance coverage and feel that they always will have an insurance policy. However, there are huge holes in our existing system and it is far too easy to fall into one of them.

Health insurance agents hear this story repeatedly. A caller, let's call her Susan, will call looking for healthcare insurance. Susan has worked since she graduated from college and has never been without insurance.

She lost her employment based medical coverage about a year ago when she became too sick to do her job. She took the COBRA option. Now she is nearing the end of her eighteen-month eligibility for COBRA and wants to get an individual medical COVERAGE policy.

Her condition prevents her from being employable, but has not outward symptoms. She is able to do most of the things she wants to do. Her doctor has told her that she is doing fine. From the doctor's standpoint she is. With the right medicines, she will live a long life. However, from an insurability standpoint, she is not. The treatment the doctor expects her to get would be expensive and will cost them more than the premiums they can charge Susan. Susan is shocked when she hears this.

Susan might break down in tears. She might be uncontrollably upset. Susan has worked all her life and has played by the rules. She believes that she should qualify for affordable medical care.

Susan learns from the agent that there is a state-sponsored program that she will qualify for. However, it is two or three times the cost of the COBRA plan that she can barely afford. Therefore, although there is a program that she qualifies for medically, she cannot possibly afford to pay for it. Susan is out of work and has cut back on everything in order to survive.

What does Susan do? She might cross her fingers and hope that she has no major health care event until she qualifies for Medicare. She might purchase the state-sponsored program with help from her son. Either way she will probably worry about her health and her financial standing all the time.

Another call medical insurance broker's get a lot is the one from Bill. Bill's daughter Lisa has been covered by his medical coverage policy since her birth. Lisa is now an adult and is about to be kicked off his policy due to her age.

Lisa has all appearances of health, but she has a condition that affects her kidney. She takes a pricey Rx that allows her to do everything she wants to do. So long as she takes her Rx, she's fine. No one outside of her family and very close friends know that she has ever had a sickness more severe than the flu.

Lisa has had healthcare insurance since her conception, but now cannot get affordable health insurance because she has aged out of her parents' policy and is uninsurable in the private market. She is faced with the prospect of doing without her medicine and putting her health at risk. She might ask her parents to help pay for a costly state-sponsored program. Lisa doesn't know that they can only afford to do this at the expense of their retirement. They have just finished paying for Lisa's education and had planned to put any extra money they earn over the next ten years into their retirement fund.

There are hundreds of thousands of Lisa's and Susan's around the country. These People have played by the rules and have lost their employer sponsored insurance due to an accident or sickness.

When medical coverage is tied into your job, if you lose your employment or you lose your health coverage. Cancer or a heart attack or diabetes can keep you from getting a job. When you are no longer able to do your job, chances are you will no longer be eligible for your employment based healthcare insurance coverage. This can mean that you die before your time because you cannot afford to pay for health care or health insurance when you are no longer working.

The present medical care system ruins the lives of hard working Americans. What a lot of us don't know that even those who have worked hard all their lives and have done what they could to maintain medical insurance through their jobs can have their golden years decimated in our current system. You lose your health, then you lose your job, then you lose your healthcare insurance, then you lose your house. In addition, there isn't much you can do about it in the current system.