Tag: health insurance

My Health Insurance Story

My Health Insurance Story

by MichelleMcHatton

In the wake of the killing of United HealthCare’s CEO, many have been sharing their health insurance stories on social media.

Well, I’m going to share my health insurance story with you. Because I want you to know and understand that not having something covered that you want, need or feel you need to have covered isn’t always in the hands of the insurance company.

Twenty-two years ago my husband and I were trying to start a family and, as I’m sure you can sense where this is going, were having difficulties in doing so. I have a condition called PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome or disease) and one of the issues with it is infertility, which can be anything from irregular menstrual cycles to heavy menstrual cycles and lots of stuff in between.

Eventually we were referred for infertility treatment. Which is great if you can afford it on your own or if your employer offers it as part of their health insurance plan. Well, guess what? The employer I was at, which was an employer I was planning to leave as they were a shit employer, did not offer infertility treatments as part of the health insurance plan. Although the insurance company did offer infertility treatments (this is what I was told when I called the insurance company; but I was also told that my employer had not opted for that particular option). The employer had just opted for a plan (probably a cheaper plan) that didn’t offer that option.

As a friend in Human Resources explained to me, just about every year companies review the health insurance plans they offer their employees and decide what is affable and affordable for the company and the employees. A decent company will look at the kind of employees they have (how many have families, women, men) and based on the percentage of population will often decide what kind of coverage they should offer. The health insurance company they use (could be Blue Cross, Cigna, Tufts, you name it) will present them with many options (she told me the company she is HR rep for uses a health insurance company that offers twenty options). From those options, the HR people decide what is best for the majority of their employees.

I eventually found an employer that did offer infertility treatments as part of their health insurance plan and, as they say, the rest is history. Although I did go through two rounds of infertility treatments, neither was successful. As it turns out, I became pregnant on my own (which I attribute to the help of OTC Estroven–but that’s another story for another time). And nine-teen, almost twenty years later, here we are!

Fast forward to 2014 when my daughter was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Only a few years before my state of Massachusetts had passed a law that required private health insurers and state health plans provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  And in 2014 the Autism Omnibus Bill was passed, which led to MassHealth starting to cover Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in 2015. ABA is a therapy that is often prescribed for people with autism. So there are ways that states themselves can actually help people get the health insurance coverage that they need and/or want.

A not exciting but still important post

A not exciting but still important post

by MichelleMcHatton

This post is going to be about something that’s not very exciting, but it’s very important.  It’s something that most of us have, yet most don’t really think about.  Until we need it.  It’s called insurance.

There are countless different kinds of insurance you can have:  auto, home, renters, life, pet, insurance for priceless pieces of jewelry or art (sometimes covered under homeowner’s, but often offered individually), even individual insurance options for body parts.  You name it, you can probably get insurance for it.  With all the different kinds of insurance available out there for just about anything, why is it so many people balk at having health insurance?  Especially our not-so-wonderful “president” and his moronic posse called the GOP.

All but two states require you have auto insurance—New Hampshire and Virginia.  And although it’s not mandatory, you’re still responsible if you cause an accident.  And you’re stupid if you don’t have it.  Not only for yourself but for others.

For most people who have a mortgage on their home or rent an apartment, it’s usually a requirement to have some kind of homeowner’s or renter’s insurance.  It’s stupid if you don’t because insurance is there to protect you.  Even as a liability.  If someone visited your home, fell down your icy stairs and broke their leg or worse, was killed, that’s a liability on you.  If you’re not protected by insurance, good luck.

Life insurance is probably the most overlooked, yet valuable, even affordable, type of insurance.  No, it’s not meant for you directly, but for your family to use indirectly for you in your passing.  Would you expect your family to go into bankruptcy because they couldn’t afford to bury you?  Do you think everything can be paid for with a GoFundMe page?  Please.  That’s relying on others who may or may not come through for you.  Life insurance is a definite.  Just don’t default on your premiums.  Which you shouldn’t with any kind of insurance.  That would just be stupid.

And now, let’s discuss the dreaded health insurance.  Believe it or not, it is actually easier to get health insurance than it is to get life insurance.  With life insurance, you can be turned down because of a pre-existing condition.  But guess what?  With health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, health insurers can no longer charge you more or deny you or your child coverage because of a pre-existing health condition.  They cannot limit benefits for that condition either.  Once you have insurance, they can’t refuse to cover treatment for your pre-existing condition.

But our not-so-wonderful “president” and his moronic posse called the GOP want to change that.  First they just wanted to have it so insurers could deny you if you have a pre-existing condition.  Now they just want EVERYONE to NOT EVEN HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE!  ISN’T THAT WONDERFUL????  There are 30 million Americans who risk losing their health insurance benefits if these assholes get their way.  The lucky ones will be left with paying way more than they are now for much less coverage.

Before you say “but I don’t have a pre-existing condition”, ask yourself if you are human.  If you ARE human, which I assume anyone reading this would be, then, guess what?  You DO have a pre-existing condition.  You may not have arthritis now, but chances are you will.  You may not have any one of countless kinds of cancers, diseases, ailments, mystery illnesses, but there’s a very strong chance you will.  If you are female and are planning on having children, there’s a very good chance you’ll have a pre-existing condition called “pregnancy”.  If you have children, you should KNOW there’s going to be some kind of pre-existing condition/need for medical care somewhere along the line.  I could go on and on.

Before you say “but I don’t want to have to pay for health insurance”, ask yourself why not?  You pay for auto insurance, don’t you?  Possibly homeowners or renter’s? Maybe even pet insurance?  You don’t squawk at paying for any of that, do you?  And you’re probably paying a hell of a lot more for the pet insurance than you would be for health insurance.  If you’re not paying for any kind of insurance, you either need to stop ripping someone off or get a life.  Or both.

The fact that these assholes are even CONSIDERING doing this to Americans should tell EVERY AMERICAN exactly what these assholes think of you.  THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU.  They really don’t.  They didn’t two years ago when they tried to take our insurance away and they still don’t.  It’s sickening to know this is what they think of us.  Our own government dislikes its own citizens so much they want to kill them.  Because taking away health insurance for millions will exactly cause that to happen.

Here’s the “Skinny” on “the Skinny”

Here’s the “Skinny” on “the Skinny”

by MichelleMcHatton

As of this moment the bozos in Washington are dicking around with an 8-page “bill” that took them seven years to create.  They call this the “skinny repeal” plan because it repeals some of the ACA.  The problem I have with it is what it repeals.

The “skinny repeal” plan would likely eliminate the individual mandate, which requires nearly all Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty.

This is the part of the ACA that young people have been bitching about.  They’ve been bitching about it because they’re young and healthy so their thinking is “why should I be required to pay for insurance if I don’t need it”.  That’s like someone saying they’ve been driving for twenty years, have never gotten a speeding ticket and have never been in an accident.  Why should I have auto insurance?  I’m a great driver.  Then one day–BOOM!  They hit someone, total their car and send the other party to the hospital.  Bet they wish they had auto insurance.

It’s the same thing with health insurance.  You’re a 20-something young stud, never smoked, don’t drink or do drugs, eat right, exercise, do all the right things.  But one day you start to feel “not right”.  You start to become clumsy.  Your stamina has gone AWOL.  You lose complete sensation in both your arms at the same time.  After many, many visits to many, many doctors and many, many medical bills you have had to pay out-of-pocket from your $15.00 an hour job because you were too ignorant to get health insurance, you learn that you have Multiple Sclerosis.  Health insurance would be nice right about now.

On the surface the option of not being required to buy health insurance may seem appealing to some.  Shit, we could all save a lot of money, right? Maybe take that dream vacation we’ve always wanted but won’t be able to take because we now have cancer and are bankrupt from all the bills we couldn’t pay.  Because we didn’t buy the health insurance.  Because we didn’t have to.  But now we wish we had.  Coulda.  Shoulda.  Woulda.  Didn’t.  Do you think Washington gives a fuck about your bad decision?  They should all be shot for even wanting to give you the fucking option!

Then there is the elimination of the employer mandate, which obligates larger companies to provide affordable coverage to their full-time workers.  The company I work for is a rather large company and I do obtain health insurance for me and my family through them.  If they are given the option to eliminate affordable coverage, what kind of health insurance options am I going to have as an employee?  Great, they can save money by offering some watered down shit plan.  Oooh, maybe they’ll install new windows with their savings.  Christ, the plan they offer now isn’t even that great but it’s first class compared to the health insurance offered at my husband’s company and at a few other companies I know of.  I can’t imagine what the plan would be like if they were only “obligated” to offer the “minimum”.  I’d probably be better off with nothing.

A little over a month ago President Barack Obama posted a message on Facebook regarding the Republican plan.  One thing he said that stood out to me was:

“Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family—this bill will do you harm. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.”  

Folks, this means all of us.  We’re only human.  You know at some point in your life you will get sick, even if it’s just the common cold.  Hopefully you will live long enough to get old but along with age comes a myriad of health issues from simple ailments to complex diseases.  And you may or may not start a family.  But if you have any kind of dependent in your life, whether it’s a child or spouse, they may rely on you for health insurance.

WHY WOULDN’T YOU WANT IT??????????????