gotcha covered, kid.... kind of

Some components of the Federal health care reform laws will begin in January.  My husband got notice that their company will begin to implement the coverage for "kids" up to 26 years old, early, starting in November. No longer is it a requirement that the young adult be a full time college student, live at home, or have parents cover at least half of their expenses, annually. Allegedly, they will not be able to disqualify pre existing conditions. In our case, adding one child would be $143 bucks a month. That's $1716 a year... but considering the fact a recent 2 day hospital visit will run about $8000 bucks, that's a bargain. 
Of course the insurance bean counters are probably busy figuring out ways to add co pays, exclusions & addendums, exceptions, restrictions & any other fine print that will allow them to not pay any or all of a claim- but still having some coverage during these formative years is a huge relief. 
Our kids have had health coverage their whole lives, but as they became adults, they could not longer get coverage, and it scared the hell out of me. We all know most young/healthy people don't give much thought about medical expenses, until something happens & the big bills start to flow. 

I experienced jaw dropping sticker shock when I saw how much a 2 day stay with little more than IV antibiotics is enough to bankrupt a person. Medical bankruptcy that is. 


One American goes bankrupt every 30 seconds due to health care costs.
More than 75 percent of these medically bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts, the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University reported in the American Journal of Medicine.


From the Insurance & Financial Advisor website:

"The provisions take effect amid a backdrop of two federal court cases challenging the individual mandate that forces people, starting Jan. 1, 2014, to either buy health insurance or pay a fine. Both challenges, one in Virginia and one in Florida, appear likely to move forward, creating the possibility that the law could be altered or deemed illegal by a federal court, maybe even the U.S. Supreme Court.

Further muddying the waters is the possibility that Republicans will earn enough seats in Congress in November to take control. If they meet that goal, then it is likely that they would seek repeal Obama’s reform law consumers’ rights to appeal their decisions,” said Guest.

Two major changes that will apply to all health insurance plans in the individual and small business markets include a ban on the practice of canceling coverage when people get sick and a ban on annual and lifetime coverage limits.

Most consumer protections will kick in at the official beginning of a plan year. Many employer-based plans start in January but some start later. Also, consumers will start hearing the terms “grandfathered” and “non-grandfathered.”  The former refers to plans that existed when the health care reform law was signed six months ago.

The law forces health insurance plans to allow adult children to stay on their parents’ plans until their 26th birthday.  The new requirement takes effect when the next plan year starts. Some insurers and companies voluntarily started offering young-adult coverage earlier than the new plan year.  Parents should check with their plan administrator to find out the exact renewal date.

Health insurers won’t be able to cancel coverage if people become sick or set annual dollar limits on coverage, phased in over three years.

They also cannot deny coverage to children under age 19 with pre-existing conditions or impose barriers to emergency care."

If some GOP or Tea Party "Tax cuts for the rich" idiot causes problems with health care reform, I think I will become quite discouraged. Realizing we did not get a true Public Option for genuine health care reform, but even the shitty watered down measure will get sliced & diced as well. 

Look at what a total dog fight it was just to get the scraps of health care reform we did. Clearly the GOP would fight tooth & nail to prevent Universal Health care from ever seeing the light of day  in this country.

Leaving the for-profit model in health care means some schmuck will figure out a way to rip you off