Reply #78: It's not as if I didn't try to keep insurance.I already spent a fortune.

[revcarol]

I tried to COBRA my insurance after my church closed. It seems that NON-PROFITS (like churches) are not under the COBRA federal law. So I could only COBRA my insurance under the laws of the state that the insurance was under: SIX months, instead of 18 months.

So at the end of the six months, I was offered a choice of that company's private plans. I could have hospitalization, med tests and doctors, no pharmas unless hospitalized for $4000 A QUARTER

or I could have hospitalization, doctors during the hospitalization, med tests during the hospitalization, no pharma except during the hospitalization, for $2000 PER QUARTER.

YOWCH!!

So I called the company, explaining that I had only been hospitalized once in over 40 years except for the birth of my children, and that the most serious oupatient problem I had had was a terrible bout of the flu.So WHY on earth was I being offered plans at THESE rates?

Turns out that they only offer continuing medical to a former client AT THE HIGHEST RATES, regardless of medical history.

On the phone again. Called every TV ad, company that sent literature through the mail,called the state insurance commissioner to see if they could DO this and get other companies and HMO's that might insure me...Used up my phone card, trying to find something else...

Turns out that this is perfectly legal to charge the highest rates on individual policies regardless of medical history, and that companies have the option of whether they will consider medical history or not. And no one would offer me a better policy.HMO's didn't cover rural areas. I would have had to go 225 miles to see a doctor!!

So I took three quarters of the $2000 policy($actually $1996). Hospitalization only, just to keep from going into bankruptcy if I did have to be hospitalized. Now $6000 later, and unable to afford the next $2000, I realize that I was probably foolish to spend the $6000, but I did what I thought was best at the time.

I thank all of you for your kind words and offers of assistance.My heart is just breaking for all the others in the same boat. I am doing better now, but even MORE PISSED that we aren't doing anything about the SYSTEM.The leading cause of bankruptcies is medical expense. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, FOLKS.

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls,
it tolls for thee."

DENNIS KUCINICH, WE NEED YOU.