Reply #32: Real fun is when you can't get private insurance at any price...

[hunter]

Currently we have insurance through work, but we've previously timed out COBRAs and been in a position where we couldn't purchase medical insurance at any price. People always argue that there are private plans or pseudo-group plans for people with these sorts of pre-existing conditions but all we ever found was stuff that was essentially worthless and little better than being uninsured.

During one bad time we were able to get the California State plan for high risk people, which was a lot better than nothing, but we were on the waiting list and uninsured for a few months after our horribly expensive COBRA ran out.

The Major Risk Medical Insurance Program (MRMIP) provides health insurance for Californians unable to obtain coverage in the individual health insurance market because of their pre-existing conditions. Californians qualifying for the program, participate in the cost of their coverage by paying premiums. The State of California supplements those premiums to cover the cost of care in MRMIP. Tobacco tax funds currently subsidize the MRMIP. Due to limited funding, MRMIP may have a waiting list.

Qualifications:

• California resident.
  
  
• Cannot be eligible for both Part A and Part B of Medicare, unless eligible solely because of end-stage renal disease.
  
  
• Cannot be eligible to purchase any health insurance for continuation of benefits under Cobra or CalCobra.
  
  
• Unable to secure adequate coverage.
  

http://www.mrmib.ca.gov/MRMIB/MRMIB4.html

This nation needs a single payer health care system NOW, and the only thing stopping us from achieving this is the politicians who are beholden to the insurance industry, and the number of Americans who are blissfully unaware of what it is like to suffer chronic medical problems of the sort that make insurance either unaffordable or entirely unavailable.