[SlideStop]

As of yesterday I'm health insurance-less. :-( I've been thinking of my options, but I have no idea where to go. I am not eligible for health insurance through my job, nor am I going to get hitched to my girlfriend to share her benefits.

I guess I have several options:

1. Keep my mothers insurance through Cobra for $700 a month. Certainly not affordable!

2. Ideally I would like to just get a catastrophe (hospital only) plan. Especially with horseback riding I really need to be covered for accidents. For regular doctors visits I'd just pay out of pocket. From what I've been seeing it will cost me roughly $300 a month.

3. Obamacare, or whatever you want to call it. From what I'm gathering I'd be on medicaid and it would be free to me ( as a make under $16,000 a year). They disguise as "emblem community health plan". I feel like a freeloader, but I will only use the coverage unless I need hospital attention. Doctors barely take medicaid/CHP anyway and I don't mind paying or of pocket to see my doctors. In all honesty I feel embarrassed for even considering this an option, but I need health insurance.

4. I can get health insurance through the school for $800 a year. It might be worth looking into, but I'll have to wait until september to start receiving insurance. If I get Obamacare then it will save me $800 for the fall semester on my tuition.

5.Take a risk and do nothing. Pay out of pocket for doctors visits and pray I don't need emergency medical care. I've done this before for several months. I didn't like it... but I could do it again. Luckily I'm a very healthy person (knock wood).

I'd only need this insurance until spring next year. I will be graduating with my BSN in the fall. Then I should be sitting for the N-CLEX in the end of January/beginning of February. Hopefully by March or so I will be able to kick off my career and hopefully there won't be any probation period on benefits. If there is then I'll probably be needing it until next June or so. Time like these make me wish I was graduating on time!! :evil:

Thanks for any advice or suggestions! This is all so confusing, especially with the stigma that goes along with government assistance programs. My family could have been on it... probably the majority of my existence... but we've always muscled through or did without. Growing up sucks.

 

[boots]

Sorry to hear. The new insurance requirements made it rough for many. My own went up quite a bit. Ugh. Just as reimbursement for my work took another hit and my income went down.

I wouldn't do nothing. We don't know what the fines for not having insurance are going to be.

I'm like you, and avoid overt government assistance. Always. Maybe stay on the COBRA and go with school insurance in the fall? Or get the cheapest now, and switch to the college insurance when you can?

 

[MyBoySi]

If I were you I would go for the Medicaid.

I'd your a working contributing member of society how are you a freeloader? The assistance is there for those who need it, just because some choose to abuse and misuse the system shouldn't make people who truly need it feel bad for doing so.

If you feel funny about it go with school or work insurance asap but stupid to be without something as that seems to be when something always happens
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[Midnite711]

I feel your pain. Come July I have to re do my insurance but I make to much money to be put back on Medicaid. I have to wait with my new job before I am eligible to get their insurance. Quite a nuisance. I would go to Medicaid if you meet the requirements!

 

[tinyliny]

We just lost ours. COBRA for 4 would be close to 2000$ A month!
We will try to skate until hubby gets job. Can always go back and get COBRA retroactively up to 6 weeks after loss of job.


I do not know what open market insurance would cost. It always gets worse, never better.

 

[Clayton Taffy]

Yesterday I spent four hours on the phone trying to get a human on the phone at blue cross, when I went to pay my $629 bill for the month of june, they said I was canceled.

Things I learned.... open enrollment is over for this year, all you can get is a short term plan. Not all bad united health care has a decent plan, if you are healthy, for around $250 a month. You can get that till the end of the year, then look for something permanent.

Get yourself a good broker and forget dealing with the insurance companies directly. If you pm me I can give you my brokers name, she was really helpful and knowledgeable.

Finally I got through to a human. ...I wasn't canceled, there were two days in May that I owed for, and that put me on the canceled list m
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[SouthernTrails]

We just lost ours. COBRA for 4 would be close to 2000$ A month!
We will try to skate until hubby gets job. Can always go back and get COBRA retroactively up to 6 weeks after loss of job.


I do not know what open market insurance would cost. It always gets worse, never better.

Try http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/?allid=Mic17854&sid=heealthinsurance-com-e

They have plans for up to 6 months that are sometimes reasonable, a friend just found a 6 month plan there that was half of what her Cobra would have been

.

 

[SlideStop]

Sorry to hear. The new insurance requirements made it rough for many. My own went up quite a bit. Ugh. Just as reimbursement for my work took another hit and my income went down.

I wouldn't do nothing. We don't know what the fines for not having insurance are going to be.

I'm like you, and avoid overt government assistance. Always. Maybe stay on the COBRA and go with school insurance in the fall? Or get the cheapest now, and switch to the college insurance when you can?

Cobra for the summer alone would be $2100 dollars, that would be over half what I typically make over the for the summer. I would consider it if I actually used that amount of money in medical expenses.

In the fall I will definitely inquire about what the schools health insurance policy covers.
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[SlideStop]

If I were you I would go for the Medicaid.

I'd your a working contributing member of society how are you a freeloader? The assistance is there for those who need it, just because some choose to abuse and misuse the system shouldn't make people who truly need it feel bad for doing so.

If you feel funny about it go with school or work insurance asap but stupid to be without something as that seems to be when something always happens
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You don't even know how badly I felt like I was tempting fate when I was insurance-less. I really got lucky nothing bad happened!! I think I had a flu one time and it was $80 for the office visit and $40 for the medication.

You are right. I work very hard, always have. I do feel bad for taking the assistance, but I did earn it and will continue to contribute. I am using it for it's intended purposes. I'm not taking advantage (I'll be on it for a year tops).

I think I might go this route. I just want it there as a safety net incase something serious should happen, not for every day problems. If I want to see my regular doctors I'll just pay out of pocket for them.
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[Poseidon]

I am on Medicaid. My family is low income so that is what we've always had. When I was 21, I got booted off my mom's and went 9 months without insurance and for a clumsy individual like me, this was a constantly nerve-wracking thought. As soon as January hit, I applied for it without any shame. I'm still working through my application process because there was a mishap with my income being reported incorrectly but it's not a huge issue beacuse I am still well under $16,000 a year as a college student.

I seriously sighed out a ton of stress when I got medications--$100 worth for a month's worth--free of charge to me.

Don't feel bad for taking the assistance. 1) It's there for a reason. Use it. 2) We shouldn't be caring for d-mn insurance. Our healthcare system is the biggest joke in the world.

 

[tinyliny]

I am on Medicaid. My family is low income so that is what we've always had. When I was 21, I got booted off my mom's and went 9 months without insurance and for a clumsy individual like me, this was a constantly nerve-wracking thought. As soon as January hit, I applied for it without any shame. I'm still working through my application process because there was a mishap with my income being reported incorrectly but it's not a huge issue beacuse I am still well under $16,000 a year as a college student.

I seriously sighed out a ton of stress when I got medications--$100 worth for a month's worth--free of charge to me.

Don't feel bad for taking the assistance. 1) It's there for a reason. Use it. 2) We shouldn't be caring for d-mn insurance. Our healthcare system is the biggest joke in the world.

I find it ironic that you say that, while your medications are paid for by "the government", which is in reality, me and others , and you, who pay taxes, and others who pay the higher rates of insurance, so that you CAN have medicaide. I guess it's a joke, if you want, but a good one for some, not so good for others.

 

[LemonZeus]

I'm insurance-less at the moment as well. Went to healthcare.gov last night and tried to sign up for my state's insurance plan, that was a fiasco. They couldn't verify me, even though I've paid taxes, lived in the same house pretty much all my life, and even threw in my social security number. I had to call a help line, and even then, they couldn't "verify" me. So I had to go to another help line for the Healthcare Marketplace. The medication I take costs a RIDICULOUS amount of money- over $150 a month- so I need some kind of break with that. They eventually got my application through. That was interesting. I'm all for socialized medicine, by the way, but I think that comes with the Democrat territory.

 

[Poseidon]

[/B]


I find it ironic that you say that, while your medications are paid for by "the government", which is in reality, me and others , and you, who pay taxes, and others who pay the higher rates of insurance, so that you CAN have medicaide. I guess it's a joke, if you want, but a good one for some, not so good for others.

What I am saying is that we should ALL pay for it via taxes, not directly out of pocket. The messed up system now is works in favour for some people and greatly detriments others. It should benefit everyone, but the whole system is a joke.

 

[tinyliny]

I see. That sounds like a nightmare. I am so NOT looking forward to doing that. I have been spoiled in having insurance through my husband's work, so it's a come to reality time for me.

 

[tinyliny]

What I am saying is that we should ALL pay for it via taxes, not directly out of pocket. The messed up system now is works in favour for some people and greatly detriments others. It should benefit everyone, but the whole system is a joke.

so, you mean a single payer system? this was attempted but not acceptable to many . it has it's good and bad points. I mean, it was the preferred method by some to reform healthcare originally, but was adapted and adapted until we have what we have now; and odd mishmash.

 

[Poseidon]

No, I mean a universal health care system. Canada seems to have their stuff together and their system seems primarily beneficial. Same with many European countries who, you know, care about their citizens' welfare. Their university education systems are something to be envied as well.

 

[tinyliny]

Universal health care and single payer are the same thing, I beleive. care is paid for by the government, which taxes the people for such. thus it's a "single" payer becuase gov is the one who pays, and sets the price for how much they will pay , etc.

 

[Poseidon]

Fair enough, I have just never heard it referred to as that. Either way, our system screws over a LOT of people from every socioeconomic level. Our prices are ridiculously inflated to the point where people go to Europe for surgeries because the overall costs of travel and the surgery itself is far less than what they would pay domestically. That alone is a ridiculous thing to have to say.

However, this is COMPLETELY off topic from what SlideStop is asking. I still vote that there is NO shame in applying for Medicaid. I was raise in a lower middle class single-parent family so I do not feel like my pride is hurt by using it. I live paycheck to paycheck in college for the things I have to finance, so if I had to come up with my own private insurance, I would literally have no resources.

 

[gunslinger]

Slidestop. If you don't own any thing the debt collectors could get then couldn't you take a bankruptcy should something happen?
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[SlideStop]

Slidestop. If you don't own any thing the debt collectors could get then couldn't you take a bankruptcy should something happen?
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That should look GREAT on my credit score.

I hope this is a joke or something I'm not understanding.
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