After a long struggle, I finally found affordable health insurance. The policy went into affect in April of this year. Now, at the end of June, is the first time I’ve had reason to use it. The bad news is that I am sick enough to require a doctor. The good news is that I have health insurance coverage to help me pay for the cost of getting well. It is rather amazing how different life is when I have health insurance coverage. Today is a perfect example of this. I’d been feeling sick for the past four or five … Continue reading →

Recently, 43 Catholic organizations filed about a dozen lawsuits against the federal government. The groups feel that the federal requirement that all health insurance plans must cover birth control violates their religious freedom. This argument has no legal merit. There has been an ongoing battle regarding birth control. The federal government defines birth control as part of women’s preventative care. All preventative care must be covered by a health insurance plan without cost to the policyholder. Not long after this requirement was made, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops led several Catholic organizations in a series of complaints about … Continue reading →

In the past few weeks, I have found myself being very focused on health insurance. It isn’t just because I write about it every day. It also has to do with the fact that I am in the process of (hopefully) being approved for a health insurance policy. My experience today showed me that health insurance is on everyone’s mind, not just mine. Recently, I applied for what I believe could be an affordable health insurance policy. The insurer has sent me an email that acknowledges that they received my application. I have yet to hear whether or not I … Continue reading →

I have noticed that, most of the time, health insurance companies neglect to put a key piece of information into the approval letters that they send to customers. They fail to put in what the cost of the premium will be. I think that insurers should be legally required to put that into approval letters. Here are the reasons why I think so. When an insurer sends an approval letter to a customer, it means that the insurance company has taken all the information from the person’s application, and calculated how expensive it would be to cover the medical care … Continue reading →

I am among the thousands of Americans that has absolutely no health insurance coverage. It feels like a twisted, malicious, cosmic joke that I happen to be searching for affordable health insurance while I am fighting a bad cold. Here are my thoughts about this situation, as I cough my way through the night. I have heard insurance companies complain that too many people wait to buy health insurance until after they are already sick. This troubles insurers who are now, legally, unable to reject the applications for a health insurance plan that are submitted by people who have serious, … Continue reading →

I recently began yet another attempt to find affordable health insurance. In a previous blog I wrote about the details that made a particular health plan look promising. Today, the insurer called. If you ever had any doubts about how inefficient health insurance is handled in this country, try going through the process of attempting to purchase an individual health insurance plan. It brings certain difficulties into sharp, clear, focus. The last time I had health insurance was when I was working as a teacher. My job came with employer sponsored health insurance. It wasn’t incredibly difficult to fill out … Continue reading →

Right now, the majority of Americans that have health insurance coverage are able to afford it because their employer offers it to them as a job benefit. While this situation has some advantages, it also comes with many problems. For decades, the easiest way for Americans to find affordable health insurance coverage was to look for a company or business that offered an employer sponsored health insurance plan to its workers. Those that got hired, full time, by one of these companies were all set. The worker was assured that the company would continue to offer good health insurance coverage, … Continue reading →

Mitt Romney recently gave a speech where he talked about health insurance. In part of that speech, he said something that sounded as though he enjoyed firing people. He was talking about firing one’s health insurance company. Politicians should be extremely careful about the words they choose to say during an election year. Specific phrases, when taken out of context, can be used by a person’s opponents to make him or her look bad. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to learn that this sort of thing happens, or that it is a tactic that has been frequently used … Continue reading →

We are nearly at the end of 2011. Now that the chaos that comes with the holidays is over, people start thinking about the year to come. Have you made any insurance related New Year’s Resolutions? It might be a good idea to reassess your insurance coverage. Right now, you are likely to have at least one or two insurance policies that do not require you to make any changes. For me, this would be my auto insurance policy. I did not purchase a new vehicle in 2011, and my husband and I didn’t need to buy a second vehicle. … Continue reading →

Walmart might be planning on a partnership with outside healthcare companies. This would allow them to treat and manage serious medical conditions in it’s 140 in-store clinics. This could provide more options for people who lack health insurance. Is Walmart really going to expand what their in-store clinics can offer? There is some debate about this idea. On the one hand, there was an NPR report that mentioned a confidential document that Walmart sent out to healthcare vendors. That document described some of Walmart’s plans to create a low-cost primary care healthcare platform. On the other hand, Walmart has made … Continue reading →