Health Insurance Story – My Personal Quest For Health Insurance Against All Odds
This is a story about health insurance. Actually, it’s a real life account of the difficult time that my wife and I had trying to get health insurance for our family. A few months ago, we found ourselves needing health insurance. After my employer filled for Bankruptcy, I decided to become self-employed. The health insurance that I had at the time (through my employer) only lasted through the end of that last month and then I was presented with the option of either letting our policy lapse, or going on COBRA. Problem was, the COBRA premiums were about 3 times more expensive than the original insurance payments. We were basically forced into having our policy lapse because we couldn’t afford the COBRA payments.
I applied for individual insurance through a local agent. I went through the application process and submitted everything back to the agent online.
The agent eventually told me that we were declined coverage because of a “pre-existing condition.” I had some minor back issues throughout my life and the insurance company declined us as a result.
I was at a loss. I needed insurance but couldn’t afford COBRA. I found a website called Health Insurance Anthem Blue Cross. I filled out the application there and was contacted by the agent for Blue Cross. He told me that I could apply as a group and I wouldn’t need to worry about the “pre-existing” conditions – that I couldn’t be declined. My wife and I had an LLC that we filled a few years prior so we used that LLC to call ourselves a “group” and submitted the application accordingly.
We had to show proof that the LLC was active and that we were, in fact, using it to run a business. A week later we had health insurance! It was a really great plan actually. It paid out at 100% after a nominal deductible was met. That year we had a lot of medical bills (including the birth of my 4th child) so we met the deductible very quickly and everything else was paid for by the insurance company at 100%.
I like that I was able to complete the application process online as opposed to turning in a hand-written application. It was also very important to me to have access to a knowledgeable insurance agent who could answer our questions and guide us though this process.
Want to find out more about Health Insurance, then visit Eric Sachs’ site on how to choose the best Health Insurance policy for your needs.