stressed
So let me just start off by saying how unbelievably fucked up this country is. If i were to quit my job and sit on my ass the government would pay for my health care. But since I'm a decent human being, am married and work for a living they won't help me with anything.
Lets start at the beginning. I started working at Avis in September and 3 months later my health insurance (through Cigna) kicked in. That makes it January, and a month later at the beginning of February I found out I was pregnant. At the end of February I quit my job at Avis and went back to Mobil. I knew I would have to get health insurance to cover my pregnancy on my own since Mobil didn't offer a plan for me so I looked into a bunch of different options. The obstacle that I came across was preexisting conditions. If you are diagnosed with something (for example diabetes) while you are with one health insurance company and then transfer to another you can be denied coverage for that condition for up to a year. They won't cover it at all if you had a break in coverage for 60 days or more. I made my decision based on the fact that with CDPHP and Healthy NY pregnancy was not considered a preexisting condition so I would be covered. On the application I sent in I made a separate note that said I was pregnant because I wanted to be absolutely sure that I wouldn't be denied coverage for my pregnancy. No one ever told me that it wouldn't be. A week or so ago I recieved a bill from my doctor for $225 for my most recent ultrasound. I went in and asked them why I got that bill so the person that handles their billing called my insurance company and found out that they were claiming that my pregnancy is in fact being considered a preexisting condition so they were not going to cover it. Since then I have made numerous phone calls to them to find out what the deal is. I came to find out that in order for a preexisting condition to be covered you need to have had coverage before transferring for 12 months. If you had coverage for less than that amount of time they take that amount of time off of the 12 month waiting period. So that means that if you had health insurance for only 3 months prior to transferring they will take only 3 months off of the waiting period. So instead of waiting 12 months for treatment for this condition you now only have to wait 9 months. This is exactly what happened to me. I had coverage for three months and picked up Healthy NY with CDPHP in April. As of April first I have to wait nine months before I will be covered for my pregnancy. My baby is due October 6th. That's six months. So now I'm totally screwed. I can't even BEGIN to imagine how much this is going to cost me without insurance. I am going to have to pay for every doctor visit, every blood test, every ultrasound, not to mention the hospital stay and delivery of the baby on my own. How is it fair that they can do this? I have been paying them $200 out of pocket every month thinking that I am going to be covered. Dan and I make too much money to qualify for medicaid, family health plus and PCAP. I wonder how many other people this has happened to and what I can do to make sure that it doesn't happen to anyone else. Pregnant women are stressed out enough, we shouldn't have to deal with this too.
Lets start at the beginning. I started working at Avis in September and 3 months later my health insurance (through Cigna) kicked in. That makes it January, and a month later at the beginning of February I found out I was pregnant. At the end of February I quit my job at Avis and went back to Mobil. I knew I would have to get health insurance to cover my pregnancy on my own since Mobil didn't offer a plan for me so I looked into a bunch of different options. The obstacle that I came across was preexisting conditions. If you are diagnosed with something (for example diabetes) while you are with one health insurance company and then transfer to another you can be denied coverage for that condition for up to a year. They won't cover it at all if you had a break in coverage for 60 days or more. I made my decision based on the fact that with CDPHP and Healthy NY pregnancy was not considered a preexisting condition so I would be covered. On the application I sent in I made a separate note that said I was pregnant because I wanted to be absolutely sure that I wouldn't be denied coverage for my pregnancy. No one ever told me that it wouldn't be. A week or so ago I recieved a bill from my doctor for $225 for my most recent ultrasound. I went in and asked them why I got that bill so the person that handles their billing called my insurance company and found out that they were claiming that my pregnancy is in fact being considered a preexisting condition so they were not going to cover it. Since then I have made numerous phone calls to them to find out what the deal is. I came to find out that in order for a preexisting condition to be covered you need to have had coverage before transferring for 12 months. If you had coverage for less than that amount of time they take that amount of time off of the 12 month waiting period. So that means that if you had health insurance for only 3 months prior to transferring they will take only 3 months off of the waiting period. So instead of waiting 12 months for treatment for this condition you now only have to wait 9 months. This is exactly what happened to me. I had coverage for three months and picked up Healthy NY with CDPHP in April. As of April first I have to wait nine months before I will be covered for my pregnancy. My baby is due October 6th. That's six months. So now I'm totally screwed. I can't even BEGIN to imagine how much this is going to cost me without insurance. I am going to have to pay for every doctor visit, every blood test, every ultrasound, not to mention the hospital stay and delivery of the baby on my own. How is it fair that they can do this? I have been paying them $200 out of pocket every month thinking that I am going to be covered. Dan and I make too much money to qualify for medicaid, family health plus and PCAP. I wonder how many other people this has happened to and what I can do to make sure that it doesn't happen to anyone else. Pregnant women are stressed out enough, we shouldn't have to deal with this too.