Preexisting Condition…

By Scott Coulter I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was 15. Before that, I was just another healthy adolescent kid. After that, I was a 15-year-old kid with a "preexisting condition." At the time, that phrase didn't mean a whole lot to me. I wasn't in charge of my own finances yet. And of course, I was still covered under my parents' health plan. I hadn't yet had to outsmart an insurance system designed to keep me (and my condition) OUT of the system. That didn't start until graduation from college, around the age of 22. When I graduated, I was still living in Boston. My insurance switched over to COBRA, and as always happens, the rates began steadily climbing. Within a few years I had moved to Philadelphia, and it was on me to find health insurance. Now, I have always made either part or all of my money from music in one way or another — either performing or teaching. All of the work is freelance, and it does not come with health insurance. And so I had to figure out how to get group insurance, since private insurance would deny me outright due to my preexisting condition, something perfectly allowable by law. In Philadelphia, I managed to find a group plan, funded through an arts organization that offered an umbrella for people like me — artists who needed insurance and were cut out of the loop by that preexisting condition clause in the private insurance markets. It was only offered to residents within the city limits. It was a very unique program. And so I s...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs