More on Health Care

I was cruising the news today and found this - Until Medical Bills Do Us Part   The article itself was pretty disturbing, talking about couples who divorced due to medical bills, but there was a comment on the story that shook me up a bit.  Here's a chunk of the comment -

What I learned, after a colleague was diagnosed with late-stage cancer that would require aggressive, long-term treatment, was that after 90 days out of the office on sick leave, an employee is placed on long-term disability and, if he is unable to make COBRA payments, has no further health care coverage. That's right; if you get too sick to work for three months, you lose your health insurance -- right in the middle of chemotherapy, or while you are recovering from a serious accident or stroke. That's because, once you are on long-term disability, your employer has no further obligations to you, including regarding benefits, and you are consequently dropped from the employer's plan. I was made to understand that the transfer to disability and cancellation of insurance benefits are required by the disability and medical insurance policies issued to all employers, and that no state or federal law currently can prevent such cancellations.

Even if you can afford COBRA (which is very expensive), your benefits will be extended no longer than 18 months. That means that eighteen months and 90 days after you fall ill, or have an accident, you no longer have any health insurance at all. You're on your own. No "government bureaucrat" will come between you and your doctor because, unless you have the money, you won't have a doctor.

This news shocked me, and made me wonder whether all those who oppose health claim reform on the ground that they prefer their employer plans, realize that they are not covered if they become chronically ill, or have a catastrophic accident, regardless of whether they are employed when the illness or accident occurs. Nobody has health care coverage in such circumstances. We are all uninsured.

That's pretty scary stuff.  I'm the primary breadwinner in our family, and our health insurance is provided by my employer.  If something were to happen to me, we'd not only lose my income but both hubby and I would lose our health insurance.  We couldn't afford COBRA if I was bringing home my regular paycheck, we certainly couldn't afford it if I was on disability pay.  We're not (yet) old enough for Medicare, so we'd be screwed. 

On the other paw, at present we have very little by way of assets, so we'd get to skip the gut-wrenching, soul-crushing step of liquidating our nest-egg and selling off everything we'd worked all our lives for in order to pay our medical expenses and be able to move right on to the humiliating process of joining the public assistance roles.  Somehow, that doesn't make me feel much better...


FT