Insurers consider organ doners to have "pre-existing condition", high bills follow.

[old mark]

See here for thhttp://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/11/01/Organ-donors-hit-with-shocking-bills/UPI-10561257110887/?pvn=1e story:

Kidney donor hit with over $18000 in medical bills - insurance coverage denied.

Every day, another reason to outlaw private "insurance".

mark

[strategery blunder]

Insurers consider the living to have "pre-existing condition," high bills follow

Fixed :)

and :grr: at insurance companies :grr:

[Altoid_Cyclist]

7. That reminds me of one of my accounting instructors favorite sayings when I was in school.

He was always saying; "face it people, from the second that you're born, you're doomed. There's nowhere to go but death once you take your first breath."

The disgusting part of that is that insurance companies use it as their business model. No matter what, they'll find some way to screw us over.

There's so much uncertainty as to what the mongrel HCR will actually look like that I'm not holding my breath while waiting for sweeping change in my lifetime.

Besides, holding your breath would probably be a "pre-existing condition."

[strategery blunder]

1. self-delete

funny things happening with my internet :(

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

2. Sort of misleading

his medical bills came from not being insured. Having one kidney is a pre existing condition. If this health care reform is passed this will no longer be an issue as pre existing conditions will no longer be an excuse for denying coverage.

It does suck that he is having to go through this but I think the article is trying way too hard to get you outraged.

[eridani]

3. But they can still charge any damned premium they wish to charge.

Instead of lowering the rate for those with pre-existing conditions, they'll jack the rates for everyone else. Hey, you suckers wanted some equalization, right?

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

4. Can they?

You sure about that?

Could you point me to the part of either bill that says that?

[eridani]

5. No, because nothing in the bill says that they CAN'T

There are no proposals for cost control at all.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

6. Oh then whats this bit about a max of 85%

From one of the bills

Directs the Secretary to require that plans in the individual market
also meet a medical loss ratio of not less than 85% so long as it does not destabilize the existing individual
market. If plans exceed that limit, rebates to enrollees are required


Sounds like a little cost control to me.


from the CBO report


Under a version of the Senate Finance Committee bill, the average single person would pay a $5,000 premium for a “silver plan” sold on the exchanges in 2016 but would pay $6,000 for a plan with less generous coverage if the reform failed.


You sure you know what you are talking about?

[eridani]

10. But in the case of "market destabilization" they get to change their minds

Have you noticed the complete lack of enforcement mechanisms? Where does it specify what the penalties are if the insurance companies don't comply?

[Cerridwen]

8. Try this article instead. It has more detail.

The hospital assured both men the surgeries and any donor-related complications Knisely might face would be billed to Vara's insurance, as federal law prescribes. But that is not the way it worked out.

Knisely, a 53-year-old tax analyst for the state comptroller's office, has received numerous notices that his insurance company was billed thousands of dollars by the hospital, doctors and other medical providers for treatment of post-surgery complications such as pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas. Knisely said he also has been billed directly several times and has been contacted by a collection agency because he wouldn't pay.

<snip>

Donors getting billed for transplant-related care has been a national problem for years, said Donna Luebke, a nurse practitioner in cardiology at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. She donated a kidney to her sister in 1994 and has become an advocate for living donors nationwide.

<snip>

Knisely said the hospital did not tell him that if ever he loses his insurance with the state comptroller's office where he and Vara, 52, work, some insurers might consider a single kidney to be a pre-existing condition and a possible reason to deny future coverage. Pittman said the hospital provides that information orally.

much more at link

[old mark]

9. My situation was similar - I had bypass surgery in 2003, and retired

in '07, withoug sufficient time to take my health insurance. I found that NO INSURANCE COMPANY-except Blue Cross- will insure anyone who has had any type of open chest surgery, and BC wanted $800/month just for limited coverage on me, which I could not afford. (My COBRA was nearly the same rate.)
I am now on a PA state backed program similar to the CHIP program, and it's better than what I had while I was working.
I went nearly 2 years with NO coverage at all.

mark

[Mithreal]

11. Kick