Below is a great article from Bob LaMedola at the Sun Sentinel on the federal health insurance program for people with pre-existing conditions. This program will no longer exist if everything goes through with the Health Care Reform in 2014 but until then this may be a good option if you have be denied health insurance in the private market. Visit http://www.pcip.gov/ for information on the benefit plans.
"Feds lower health premiums for pre-existing condition policies
In Florida, 40 percent drop expected to attract uninsured to federal program
12:46 p.m. EDT, June 3, 2011
A largely untapped federal health insurance program for uninsured people with pre-existing medical conditions will lower premiums by 40 percent in Florida starting July 1, officials said Tuesday.
The goal is to make the subsidized insurance more attractive to sick people who have been shut out of private coverage because insurers won't take them or the prices are too high, said Keith Maley, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the program.
The $5 billion program was created as part of the federal health overhaul last year. An estimated 750,000 in Florida and 7 million nationwide are eligible. Only 770 Floridians and about 18,000 in the nation have signed up, partly because the premiums were not affordable, officials and consumers said.
The government is lowering premiums to bring them closer to what healthy consumers pay for coverage in the open market, Maley said. Florida is one of six states where rates will come down as much as 40 percent. Also, they will need less paperwork to qualify – only a letter from a doctor rather than waiting for an insurer to deny them.
"We want to make sure the program is as accessible to people as possible," Maley said. In Florida, 27 percent of adults under 65 are uninsured, the second highest percentage in the nation, the census bureau says.
The program was designed to help people with illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes — even high blood pressure — who often are denied coverage or charged high rates by private insurers. It's open to those who have been uninsured for six months due to their illness.
Starting July 1, the program's rates in Florida will range from $118 to $158 a month for children, to $376 to $505 for adults over age 55. The program has three levels of coverage.
Last year, when the program began, the coverage would have cost more than $700 a month for Bruce Smith, 63, an unemployed Boca Raton resident with kidney, prostate and blood pressure problems. He did not enroll because he had private insurance costing $600 a month.
"At $390 a month, I believe people will be signing up," Smith said. "That would save me a lot of money."
The program is temporary, ending in 2014 when everyone will be able to buy policies through statewide exchanges, and insurers will be banned from charging higher rates for ill people.
For information, go to healthcare.gov or call 866-717-5826.
blamendola@tribune.com or 954-356-4526
Copyright © 2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel"
No comments:
Post a Comment