by wildcherry on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 | Entertainment, News | No Comments

A family who received a new house from the TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” five years ago is now facing foreclosure, reports 10News’ Joe Little. The Wofford family, of Encinitas, Calif., have been struggling for the past two years, they said. Dr. Brian Wofford, father of the eight kids, explained: “A lot of people think when you get the house you get the mortgage. Well, you don’t.”

They have been attempting to modify the loan, and have even hired an attorney to help them out, but they claimed the lending agent has been completely unresponsive. A representative of OneWest Bank, when contacted by 10News, said that loan modification papers would be ready by next week. But “I haven’t seen anything in writing,” Brian admitted. If it does not go through, the house will go up for auction in two weeks.

Tony Andrade owes tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills, and in June he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, reports the Sacramento Bee’s Bobby Caina Calvan, who is profiling him for a three-part series. Andrade is uninsured, but went to the emergency room after finding blood in his urine because he knew they would admit him. The ER diagnosed his tumor, but refused to operate. “I thought doctors were supposed to help you,” he said. “I’ve got this tumor inside me that needs to come out, that this doctor told me needs to come out, and he’s turning me away.”

He earns $11.50 an hour — too much to qualify for California’s version of Medicaid, but not enough to pay for his own insurance coverage. He also has diabetes, which would qualify as a pre-existing condition and make his insurance costs even higher. Andrade recently was approved for a county indigent services program, but bureaucratic problems halted his treatment briefly. In late September surgery to help prevent the spread of his tumor was finally approved, though the procedure still terrified him.

Tags: California Medicaid, Dr. Brian Wofford, Extreme Makeover Home Edition Foreclosure, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, health insurance, Health Reform, Medicaid, Medical Bills, National Health Reform, Wofford Family Foreclosure

by wildcherry on Monday, October 12th, 2009 | Health, News | No Comments

Late Sunday, the industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans sent its member companies a new accounting firm study that projects the legislation would add $1,700 a year to the cost of family coverage in 2013, when most of the major provisions in the bill would be in effect.

Study: Premium increase
Premiums for a single person would go up by $600 more than would be the case without the legislation, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers analysis concluded. The study was commissioned by the insurance group.

“Several major provisions in the current legislative proposal will cause health care costs to increase far faster and higher than they would under the current system,” Karen Ignagni, the top industry lobbyist in Washington, wrote in a memo to insurance company CEOs.

Baucus spokesman Mulhauser said the study is “seriously flawed” because it doesn’t take into account provisions in the legislation that would lower the cost of coverage, such as tax credits to help people buy private insurance, protections for current policies and administrative savings from a revamped marketplace.

White House health care spokeswoman Linda Douglass concurred. “This is an insurance industry analysis that is designed to reach a conclusion which benefits the industry, and does not represent what the bill does,” she said.

The Baucus plan faces a final vote in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. It got a boost last week after the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cover 94 percent of eligible Americans while reducing the federal deficit.

Costs for privately insured
But the PriceWaterhouseCoopers analysis attempted to get at a different issue — costs for privately insured individuals.

It concluded that a combination of factors in the bill — and decisions by lawmakers as they amended it — would raise costs.

The chief reason, said the report, is a decision by lawmakers to weaken proposed penalties for failing to get health insurance. The bill would require insurers to take all applicants, doing away with denials for pre-existing health problems. In return, all Americans would be required to carry coverage, either through an employer or a government program, or by buying it themselves.

But the CBO estimated that even with new federal subsidies, some 17 million Americans would still be unable to afford health insurance. Faced with that affordability problem, senators opted to ease the fines for going without coverage from the levels Baucus originally proposed. The industry says that will only let people postpone getting coverage until they get sick.

Tags: Big Pharma, Health Action, Health Care, health care reform, health insurance, Health Insurance Industry, healthcare, Insurance Companies, Insurance Industry, Obama Big Pharma, Obama Drug Companies, Obama Drug Industry, obama health care, Pharma, Pharma Deal, Pharma Memo, Senate Finance Commitee, Senator Max Baucus, Transparency, Universal Health Care, White House Pharma Memo

by nate on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 | Health, Knowledge, Life | No Comments

“It’s a huge problem, because insurance companies don’t want to insure sick people,” said Nancy Metcalf, senior program editor for Consumer Reports. “They’re a business. They don’t want to insure people they know are going to cost them a lot of money.”

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The industry’s trade association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, has a proposal to help people with pre-existing conditions as part of a comprehensive health-care reform plan.

Finding individual insurance when you have a pre-existing condition is tough but not impossible.

“We have been successful,” said Kevin Lembo, a state health care advocate with the state of Connecticut. “There are options out there.”

1. Become a group of one.

In about a dozen states, you can be a group all by yourself for insurance purposes. What this means is that you become, in effect, just like any other company, and insurers can’t deny you insurance or charge you higher premiums because of your pre-existing condition, according to Lembo.

To find out whether your state will allow you to become a group of one, see this list from the Kaiser Family Foundation (look at the column headed “Definition of Small Group,” and look for “1-50″).

For more information on becoming a group of one, see this advice from the American Diabetes Association.

In states where you can’t become a group of one, you can become a group of two.

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“You can hire your brother-in-law to become a subcontractor for your landscaping company,” Lembo said. “It’s horrible, but what else are you going to do?”

An important note: Under these rules, an insurance company might be allowed to exclude coverage for your specific condition for a short period of time, usually about six months.

2. If you’ve been laid off, get COBRA.

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COBRA can be extremely expensive, but it’s worth digging deep in your pockets for the premiums, because it may be difficult, if not impossible, to get insurance any other way, Consumer Reports’ Metcalf says. If you’ve been laid off since September 1, you’re eligible for a 65 percent discount on COBRA premiums. For more information, visit the Department of Labor’s Web site.

3. When you lose your employer-related insurance, apply for new insurance within 63 days.

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In all states, a designated insurance company — charmingly called “the insurer of last resort” — has to take “all comers” in insurance lingo. You have to apply for this insurance within 63 days of losing your group insurance. For all the rules, read this explanation from Families USA (scroll down and look for the “HIPAA eligible” heading).

Here’s the bad news: Although in some states there are limits to what the “insurer of last resort” can charge you, in other states, there aren’t. In those states, “the sky’s the limit,” Metcalf said. “They can and will charge you a fortune. It could be, say, $1,400 a month in premiums with a $5,000 deductible. But some people pay that because it’s the only game in town.”

To find out the rules in your state, visit the Kaiser Family Foundation’s State Health Facts or contact your state insurance commissioner.

4. Find out whether your state has a high-risk pool.

State high-risk pools are specifically for people with pre-existing conditions who can’t find affordable insurance on their own. Thirty states have high-risk pools, insuring 175,000 people, according to the American Diabetes Association, which lists the states on its Web site.

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5. See whether your professional organization offers group insurance.

Some professional groups, such as those representing real estate agents and freelance writers, offer health insurance. Check and see whether your profession does the same.

Here’s another piece of advice, offered somewhat tongue in cheek: Move to Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York or Vermont.

“In those states, everyone has to sell to you,” said Cheryl Fish-Parcham, deputy director of health policy at Families USA. Not only do insurance companies have to sell you a policy in those states, there are limits on how much they can charge you, she says.

For more help in finding insurance when you have a pre-existing condition, you can contact the Cover Me Foundation at 877-678-7631 or Coverage For All at 800-234-1317. To find out about public assistance programs in your state, see this guide from Families USA.

source: CNN.com

Tags: COBRA, health insurance, how to get insurance, insurance, insurance company, insurance in United States, pre-existing and insurance, pre-existing condition, welfare