I have done a complete 180 on my stance about American healthcare. Sometimes it takes a sock in the gut to see the light.
Since my COBRA expires tomorrow (18 months are up, I just got the letter last week, I thought I had until the end of August but apparently I miscalculated), I had filled out an application with Blue Cross Blue Shield for coverage. I could not understand all the fuss about individual healthcare not being affordable. The plan I applied for was very affordable! So in my mind, everyone should just go get an individual plan with BCBS and be done with it.
Oh, how I was wrong. See, you have to get approved by BCBS. And I, a fairly healthy 32 year old with only stomach troubles and an occasional kidney stone to mar her health record, was not approved. Which means I am now in the middle of uninsured shitsville. Praying to the gods of good health that I do not get struck with an emergency appendectomy and have to declare bankruptcy.
BCBS cannot tell me why I was not approved. All they can do is cheerfully tell me I’ll receive a letter in seven to ten days. I tried to get someone, ANYONE to tell me if I could get the same coverage at a higher deductible. No. Such. Luck. Thankfully I had the option to apply for emergency short term coverage, and find out within 24 hours if I am approved or not. There is, of course, still the possibility I won’t be approved. But if I am, this affords me the luxury of actually speaking to an insurance rep (at State Farm or some such) and finding out what my options are.
So those of you who have insurance through your employer? Be grateful. Because getting it on your own as a healthy, upwardly mobile female caucasian is not as easy as I thought it would be.
July 31, 2007 at 5:35 pm
God, that totally sucks! Are there any other healthcare alternatives out there?
July 31, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Hilly–if I can get the short term coverage, I can look at other options. There are plenty of plans, the trick is sifting through them and finding out who will approve you. In the meantime, apparently Illinois has a CHIP program (children’s health insurance program) which provides for middle-income folks who have been denied coverage but are not eligible for medicare. Still, without a major illness or operation in my past, I have a hard time understanding why I would be denied.
July 31, 2007 at 10:16 pm
I find it surprising that there was ever a point you thought health care in the USA was EVER any good. I’ve had insurance all my adult life (and was covered by my parents when I was younger) and STILL am terrified of getting sick, because AFFORDABLE insurance doesn’t even begin to cover the costs associated with getting seriously ill. One trip to the emergency room for a kidney stone soaked me with massive deductible costs and several “not-covered” costs that took me six months to pay off. I find that positively absurd, and cannot even fathom what the costs would have been had I no insurance at all. Bleh!
July 31, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Dave–I wouldn’t say I thought it was good, but I was fairly anti-universal healthcare, thinking quality would suffer, based on conversations with some U.K.’ers I knew (and not just because I pulled that thought out of my butt). I figured as with anything, you get what you pay for. But facing the difficulties of getting individual insurance head-on, I am not so sure after all.
August 1, 2007 at 2:03 am
I’m really sorry to hear about this.
Yes, I am happy to be insured through my employer. I don’t have the patience to deal with idiots at insurance companies trying to sign up for my own plan.