Tag: 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.

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Until It’s Gone

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Until It’s Gone

by MichelleMcHatton

 

 

Originally posted in July of this year.  Worth repeating with bullshit healthcare repeal part two happening.

 

I’ve come to the conclusion that whatever happens with the whole healthcare fiasco happens.

As crazy as it sounds, it actually would be great if this bullshit passed.   You know why?  Because everything happens for a reason.

  1.  First of all, if this shit bill passes it’s going to be a while before it actually goes into effect.  If they think otherwise, then things will be really interesting.
  2. Something nobody has mentioned (except Senator Angus King from Maine and my husband), is how this is going to effect everyone.  I don’t mean the people who need healthcare.  I’m talking about the healthcare workers.  I’m talking about the pharmaceuticals.  Does anyone know how huge the medical field is?  How many hospitals, doctors, nurses, administrative people, pharmacists this bill will affect?  Even nursing homes and rehab facilities.  Think about it.  If nobody can afford to have health insurance, how will any of these medical facilities remain in business?  Watch Senator King explain it all here to the hosts of ASSHOLE’S favorite MSNBC show “Morning Joe.

 

 

3.  Here’s the great part.  You know how ASSHOLE keeps pointing the finger at Obama blaming him for this “awful” healthcare that we have?  You know, the          Affordable Care Act?  Well, if this new shit healthcare Congress came up with gets passed and ASSHOLE signs it, guess what?  HE CAN NO LONGER BLAME OBAMA FOR SHIT HEALTHCARE!  He won’t even be able to blame Turtleface McConnell BECAUSE ASSHOLE’S name will be on the bill!  So, you know what THAT means?  WE can point the finger at ASSHOLE and he will be the only one to blame.

4.  Once Congress gets sick of the mess they created and ASSHOLE signed off on, along with all the chaos it has caused, they don’t even need ASSHOLE to repeal the shit bill and replace it back with–you guessed it–OBAMACARE!

5.  Here’s the best part:  after all this shit has been done and gone and the ACA is back in effect, people (at least the intelligent ones) will realize that although the ACA may not be perfect, it’s a hell of a lot better than what the greedy GOP assholes stuck us with.

6.  It will finally be realized that–DUH!–ACA needs to be revised, not repealed.

Remember:  you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.