Consumer Reports News: There are lots of ways to lose your health insurance. You can lose or quit your job, get a divorce, get kicked off your parent’s plan when you turn 26, move out of state, come to the end of your COBRA coverage, or have a plan that’s being discontinued. In the past, any one of those events could have meant disaster. Now, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act and other health care reforms, you have more options. Still, there's a lot you need to know. Here are answers to the most common questions about losing your insurance.
4 comments:
I went a year without health insurance without knowing. My father removed me from his health insurance and did not tell me. I only found out when I went to the hospital and they said my insurance card did not work. Luckily CMU was able to work something out where because I was not allowed to be at CMU with out insurance I had to have had it that whole time and retroactively signed me up so I was covered. But otherwise I would have been pretty screwed. Health Insurance is a tricky matter but the Affordable Care Act has made it a lot easier to navigate. A lot of people do not realize that it made a huge amount of change beyond just an affordable health care plan. It includes such changes as preventing health insurance companies from turning you down based on a previously existing condition. Meaning before the affordable healthcare act if they knew you had a disease you would be unable to get health insurance on your own, it has to be through a company.
I don't think people realize why health insurance is so important until it's too late. Fortunately, as covered in this article, there are a lot of ways to change plans and enroll in them when needed. And, although I don't understand much about the affordable care act, the little I do know makes sense and is a good change in my opinion. Like Isaac said, it prevents health insurance companies from turning you down based on a previously existing condition. And there is the health insurance marketplace. In this day and age, I don't see how finding things like health insurance should be done any other way. I mean it is important to have central place with accurate info, but not required to use it.
UGH. As I write my comments I only have to look a yard beyond my laptop screen to see all the benefits of health insurance. My foot/ankle/leg is malfunctioning, and health insurance is the fairy godmother. Poof! A pneumatic boot! Poof! MRIs! Poof! X-Rays! Poof! A hospital bed! I would say I knew where my insurance card is just about as well as I know where my body is in space, if that inspired more confidence than it does. But for all my "familiarity" with that little card, to be honest, I really don't know what insurance is other than a metaphorical bandaid. Or what I will do when I turn 26. I seem to attract more than my share of injuries, and I have never really been confronted with my ignorance where insurance is concerned. Doubtless, I will need it. I still have time as I have another month until I turn 20. I suppose health insurance is one of those teen-to-adult growing pains, but as an injury-prone teen turning - however unhappily - into an adult it's good to not only be aware of these things, but knowledgable of them too. A little knowledge never killed anybody, especially as far as health insurance is concerned.
We recently had a class about health insurance in PPP, and I found it to be very informative in terms of the types of coverage that are available. I previously knew about plans such as the HMO and PPO, but it introduced me to even more types of information. Overall, healthcare can be confusing to navigate, especially if you are unemployed or an independent contractor. And, while I agree with this article, there are many ways to lose health insurance, there are also many ways to gain it. As a country, more affordable plans are beginning to become a reality. It is more important than ever for people to remain informed about matters of healthcare. I think this industry will continue to transform, and it's transformations are unique in that the will effect almost every other business.
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