Best health insurance, if your unemployed, and already have health problems?

Question

What is the best health insurance for yourself if you do not have a job but can buy health insurance (husband works) and already have pre exsisting health conditions (hypothyroid, PCOS) and you do not want to pay much out of pocket when you goto the doctor or for RX's? I do not know ANYTHING about insurance I have never had it!

Answer 1

You best option is to go with your husband's insurance. There is less likelyhood of having problems with pre-existing conditions. If you had coverage before, the time that you had that coverage will probably count toward any waiting period with the new carrier. (Although, you state that you have never had insurance!)

Under HIPAA, the only preexisting conditions that may be excluded under a preexisting condition exclusion are those for which medical advise, diagnosis, care or treatment was recommended or received within the 6-month period before your enrollment date.  (Your enrollment date is your first day of coverage, or if there is a waiting period to get into the plan, the first day of the waiting period.)

If you had a medical condition in the past, but have not received any medical advise, diagnosis, care or treatment within the 6 months prior to your enrollment date in the plan, your old condition is not a preexisting condition to which an exclusion can be applied.  Moreover, under HIPAA, preexisting condition exclusions cannot be applied to pregnancy, regardless of whether the woman had previous health coverage.

In order to sign up with your husband's insurance, you will need to enroll during Open Enrollment. Check with his employer about when this occurs. It's possible that you would not have to wait if you just got married to him within the last 30 days.

If you cannot sign up soon and want insurance, you may be able to get insurance on an individual policy, but it will be expensive and will probably not cover your pre-existing conditions--at least for awhile (12-18 months). Find an Independant Agent near you and find out what your options are. He (she) will be able to find a policy to best meet your medical and financial needs.

Answer 2

Can you get insurance through your husband?s work? That would probably be the least expensive route. If you want insurance on your own, the best place to start is by doing what you?re doing now ? asking for personal recommendations. What kind of health insurance are you looking for? It might be a good idea to jot down a list of the different aspects of a health plan and then chart the differences between various plans you come across. Here?s an example:

Also, a good resource is...

http://www.knowledged.info/go.php?link=i...

Good Luck.

Answer 3

As stated by others, your husband's insurance is probably best bet but you still may have copay or need to pay for prescriptions. I have a blue cross plan that is 500 a month so don't recommend that if you can avoid it. This site has some comparisons based on zipcode.

http://www.daily-tools.com/health-insura...

There are some yoga postures that work on the thyroid gland so you may want to look at some websites about that.

Meditator

Answer 4

The reality for individual insurance is that you will likely not be covered with your pre-existing conditions.  If you do, you will pay through the nose for it.  Please see:  http://www.health-insurance-low-cost.net...

The answerer who said to be covered on your husband's plan is on the money.  Large group plans, in general, offer better coverage than individual plans, and they will not take pre-existing conditions into consideration.

Answer 5

Most individual plans require you to have had insurance within the last 63 days to cover pre-existing conditions.  If you have not had insurance you will probably have to deal with a 6 month waiting period on the insurance where your pre-existing conditions will not be covered.  (after that you are fine).  I have used Blue Cross as an individual plan.  The monthly costs are affordable and they have pretty good coverage.  You may also want to try Kaiser Permanente...they may be more forgiving on the pre-existing conditions.  Good Luck!