I applied to Blue Cross. They rejected me. "Preexisting Condition", they said. C'mon! I want to say, I'm almost forty! I'm entitled to a preexisting condition!* Cheapskates.
My alternative: a system where I can keep the insurance I had at work if I pay a snootload of money each month, but whoops, it seems I don't have a job at the moment and am not in the mood to throw money out the window. Not that I'm broke (I save up for dry spells), but it seems wasteful .
Being rejected by insurance bugs me more than when my cartoons are rejected (I dabbled with cartoons in college and a kid's book the early 90s.) Submitting cartoons is like buying a lottery ticket or entering a sweepstakes. Winning is the exception**, not the rule, so it's no big deal.
Insurance rejection is different. I'm being rejected. I'm surprised they didn't add a Post-it® note that said "Cram it, you defective piece of scrap!"
When I was younger I often skipped health insurance. Not now. Too many people my age (or younger) have been slapped with serious illnesses. A coworker died recently. Two of my friends have survived cancer (both at stage 3). I just got an email from Sandee (a long lost college pal, who, ironically, was mentioned in my last post) saying "My memory has been funny since my brain tumor..." Brain tumor!? What is going on? Is my generation in the shooting gallery of scary diseases? What the ..?
Better "waste" some money on insurance before some disease or accident wastes me.
*Which, I might add, is neither expensive, progressive nor likely to lead to other problems.
**I did get a cartoon published in Bird Talk Magazine. My college paper published most of the stuff I sent 'em too.
7 comments:
Having recently left corporate employment for consulting, I was faced with the task of obtaining private health insurance..."no problem", I thought.
As it turns out, the fact that I take a cholesterol reducing drug makes me an unacceptable risk, even though my cholesterol levels are normal because of the fact I take the drug!
So I too have been 'rejected' and this is sort of off-putting to say the least...
So far I've saved over $7000 by NOT having insurance, hopefully the money saved will be sufficient the next time I really need it.
As long as I don't get the dreaded long-term hospitalization I should be OK...
Take care!
Walterworld,
Glad to hear from someone else in the same boat!
It's an absolute nightmare getting insurance after you're about 16 years old. The L.A. Times did an expose on it earlier this year... not sure how hard it would be to find that now. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you regularly see doctors, you're bound to have pre-existing conditions, because you've been treated for something. If you don't go to doctors or only pay cash when you do, then your record will look pretty clean. But your health is probably much worse.
I remember one of the situations described in the paper was a woman in her 20s who got depressed after breaking up with her boyfriend. So she saw a psychologist. Because of that she was denied insurance. It sort of negates the whole career of psychologist. Jon's on a cholesterol drug too and they weren't going to take him, but his previous insurance had some kind of tag which guaranteed that someone had to take him.
I was so upset by this post that it's taken me days to respond. I just read this:
http://janeunderwood.typepad.com/my_great_breast_cancer_ad/
Health insurance/health is a major issue for me and my husband. (We work for ourselves.) He wasn't accepted by Blue Cross. I have such a high deductible it's ludicrous. Unless I get hit by a bus, it would be much less expensive not to have insurance.
Have you seen Sicko?
Namowal, I was talking to Jon about this further. He said google California hippa. His understanding is that any California resident is guaranteed health insurance coverage if applied for within 60 days of losing previous coverage, regardless of pre-existings. He was also denied by Blue Cross but then after learning his rights he was able to get coverage. Hope this helps.
Linda, Sally,
Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I really appreciate it. I've heard one horror story after another about how wonky medical insurance has gotten.
I'd have replied sooner but I was out of town (no internet) the last few days.
i love your artwork!
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