No matter what you do do not let 61 days elapse between policies or you will be straddled with preexisting clause.

What I used to do is just get a hospital only plann to cover me through the gaps time and that satisfied the preexisting BS.
IE Blue cross Hospital only plan or something with obscene deductibles but low premiums that you could never use.

Cobra is extremely expensive.!

 

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It all depends on your financial situation...

Not having health insurance means:

1) You get to choose which doctors you see and you can negotiate with hospitals etc over bills -- NEVER pay full -- they never get full from insurance companies so their base rates are massively inflated. If you are not getting at least a 33% and more likely 50% or higher cash discount -- walk.

2) You get to choose which tests etc you get as opposed to doing what is mandated by "the system." Hence if they want to expose you to more radiation in a defensive medicine thing where there is a 0.1% of them finding something at best, you can say no.

3) You WILL have to pay $5,000 medical bills at some point. You will be paying $100+ for a doctor visit. You will be paying a lot for anything they prescribe drugwise. Overall it will be less in total than the amount you would pay for health insurance by a significant amount -- assuming #4 does not happen.

4) You have NO safety net if catastrophy happens. IE Lets say you have a heart attack and end up with a $300,000 medical bill... While you could negotiate that down to say $200,000 -- it still would have to be paid. From what you have said this is an unlikely situation but could happen. If it does happen what assets you have determines if it is worth the risk.

4b) If you have no real assets then the co-pays on the insurance on a #4 event probably would have taken you to medical bankruptcy anyway. The difference being with the insurance you would end up on a payment plan and without insurance it will be so far beyond you that they will end up wiping it out. If you have a LOT of assets then you potentially get better care paying for it yourself, and you can deal with it. It is in the middle where problems happen. If you have $100,000 in assets then a $30,000 bill with insurance doesnt demolish you but a $200,000 bill without insurance does. In this case a catastrophic policy might be your best bet.

 

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you should be a phone harpy and find out exactly what got you rejected. as skeptical person i would venture that there might be a reason why they don't offer the information voluntarily and why it could mean hours of phone time to find it out. sounds to me exactly like a company policy banking on the fact that most people aren't going to be persistent harpies and investigate it themselves.


as for your continuing health problems and their connection to your work i have similar advice- investigate!. I don't know what your issues are but i would treat it as if it was a migraine. often a migraineur's environment or life situations are 'triggering' their migraines but in other cases it seems to be following its own rhythm or cycle. if you make a journal that documents your pain or whatever along with what's goin on you might be able to see a pattern. then you have a document to show the next doctor that indicates that your problem is either dependent or independent of your environment. 'stress' is probably like a stereotypical response that is true for 99% of people or something. find a doctor who is willing to entertain the notion that you are the 1% and try to prove it to him with your journal!~

 

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i haven't had medical insurance for 9 yrs, also happens to be how long it's been since i've seen a doctor. if something happens and you need to see a doctor, you go to the emergency room, make up an alias and do your best mexican accent

 

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new health care laws do something about preexisting conditions I dont know what they are or when they take affect though.

You could just wait around and let the free market take care of it.

 

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So you want me to pay for your healthcare?

Socialist.

 

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http://www.aarp.org/health/health-care-reform/info-11-2010/hcr_explained_preexisting_conditions.html

 

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This is why we had to have the new healthcare laws

 

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i hope things work out for you Sarena

 

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