Individual Health Care Policies

[dollardaze]

Your medical history can cause individual health insurers to put you in such a high risk category that it is too expensive to afford, or even deny you benefits altogether.

A study found that about 90% of applicants with less than perfect health were unable to buy individual policies at standard rates, while 37% were rejected outright.

Taking certain medications can make you ineligible for a policy. Those for a sleeping disorder, eating disorder, even those for hay fever or acne can affect how the insurer looks at your elegibility for a health care policy, because insurers consider you a high user of medicines. Have you had a prescription for Allegra?? This is sure to either deny you, increase your deductible or only give you a policy without a drug card.

Insurers only make money by avoiding the payment of high claims. More than 40% of claims can be made by 1% of policyholders. All medical conditions are looked at when determining elegibility for a policy, including past, present, and any pre-existing medical conditions. This determines what the policyholder's risk may be.

Most Americans get insurance through their employers, who pay a portion of the monthly premiums. These large groups help to offset the risk for the insurance company.

In the market for individual health care, all health care treatments and medications are considered by the insurer in determining elegibility for coverage. Insurers are taking a much bigger risk with individual policies, because the individual pays the premium without the back up of a diverse pool of people as in a company policy. Only about 7% of the population under 65 is covered by individual policies.

Ordinary circumstances can force a person to need an individual policy. Circumstances such as:
Becoming self employed
Getting a job that doesn't offer a health insurance plan.
No longer being eligible for a parent's plan as a dependant

A survey in 2005 found that most Americans have, or have had, symptoms for one or more mental health disorders during their life, but most of these cases are mild.

Almost 29% of Americans experienced anxiety disorders
20.8% experienced mood disorders
Substance abuse disorders were experienced by 14.6%
24.8% experienced impulse control disorders

357 million new prescriptions were written in 2005 for psychotherapeutic medications, which was a huge increase from 2002 in which 168.4 million were written. More children are taking these medications also. The stigma of seeking therapy for this type of illness has decreased among the American citizens. Some attribute this to celebrities, athletes, and actors who had admitted that they have been treated for illnesses such as depression, pospartum depression and anxiety disorders.

This has not made getting an individual insurance policy easier, however. The insurance company's business is not paying money, and they will do anything they can do exclude payment. This is getting worse and is a real problem for the American family. Seeking medical care, is seen as damaged by the insurers.

Very few people that need individual coverage have protection under federal law. A few states requires insurers to sell a person a policy without coverage limits if that person has had 18 months of continuous coverage and is going from a group policy to an individual policy. The problem is that there are no limits on what the insurer can charge for these policies.

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I am thankful that my fiancee and I are both covered by his insurance through work. If we were forced to get individual policies, there would just be no possible way for us to afford it, or we would be simply denied because we are both smokers of middle age. Anymore you need someone who understands all of their what I call alien language to explain what any of it means, when looking into getting a policy.

[moneysense]

We used to have medical insurance, but it ran about $454 per month for a family of 3. We were hardly ever sick, so we never did meet the deductible.

My daughter was playing with a friend one day and hit her hand on the freezer as they were running by, causing a hairline fracture of her ring finger. She was taken to the doctor, it was xrayed and treated.

The next billing period, we found that our premium had jumped to $574 for a month of coverage. Needless to say, we had to cancel the medical coverage, simply because we couldnt afford it any longer.

Now, my husband and I are both self employed, and we have no medical coverage. He is a Vietnam veteran, so he is treated through the VA. But, I, on the other hand have no coverage at all.

Finding a company with reasonable rates, that is a safe company, is next to impossible. But yet you look at Canada, and realize that everyone that lives there is covered my medical and you have to wonder why we dont have something such as that here in the United States.

As much taxes as we pay, one would think that something like that could be made available for all of us.

[dollardaze]

Every citizen deserves to have health care coverage. Having a country-wide health care system would be a big advantage for our citizens. This is possible for our country to do, other countries have had this type of coverage for a very long time. It's our big insurance companies that fight to stop this kind of legislation, and then make it hard for a person to get individual health care coverage. Where is the justice in this?

[dimetime]

There is no justice in this. Everyone should be able to recieve FREE health care. There are just way to many people in the country who need to see a doctor but cant. I believe it is time for these big heath insurance companies to find another line of work. This is something everyone needs!!