Surviving AmericanSurviving
American Medicine
Time to keep your health insurance active
This past week, two patients complained to me about changes in the insurance co-payments required by their employers. A patient worked for 3M, retired, and signed up for Medicare. Previously, 3M had been paying for her Medicare supplemental insurance. She is now receiving therapy for her breast cancer. she told me the insurance administrator has just notified her that the payments for her Medicare supplement plan would be discontinued at the end of the year. She is in a personal crisis, having now to decide what insurance she needs to purchase, at a considerable additional cost to her each month.
Another person is working for ATT. She had been paying a co-payment cost of $20 per month for her PPO insurance. She told me she has just been notified that starting next year, her co-payment will be $280 per month. She is angry, frustrated, and wondering what to do about her health care.
These situations are happening across America. One of the unintended consequences of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is an increase in costs of insurance through employers and insurance companies. What should a person do?
My tips with dealing with health insurance premium increases are:
1) Continue to keep your health insurance in place. Having non-continuous health insurance coverage will increase the risk that you might have higher premiums for pre-existing conditions, or might find it difficult to obtain insurance without going to a health insurance exchange through one of the State programs or through the new National Program in 2014.
2) Shop for comparable policies when faced with an increase in your premiums.
3) Talk to a health insurance agent to identify other insurance policies that may be satisfactory.
4) Talk with the human resources department, if your health insurance is being obtained through an employer, to determine if there is a different type of insurance policy offered by the company that may be less expensive. Frequently an employer has arranged for different insurance products as choices for employees.
Health insurance is a wonderful benefit.
- It enables you to access the outstanding American health system.
- It helps you avoid the problem of excessive fees for physicians, hospitals, tests and treatments when a person lacks insurance.
- It helps to preserve your health so you can enjoy life.
Other suggestions for dealing with health insurance choices, and relations with your health insurance company can be found Section 4 “Insuring and Financing Your Health Care” in Surviving American Medicine.
