It appears that some celebrities have a problem that many of the rest of us can relate to. Lindsay Lohan says she doesn’t have health insurance, because she can’t afford it. This is likely to cause big problems for the actress because a judge has required her to seek psychological counseling.
There are a whole lot of Americans who have been unable to find affordable health insurance. I am one of them. Every time I get sick, I find myself trying to calculate the potential medical bill that I will be stuck with if I dare to go see a doctor for whatever is ailing me. There are many people who are putting off getting necessary medical care and treatment because they cannot afford to pay for it.
It seems that even celebrities can have difficulty finding health insurance that they can afford. Lindsay Lohan recently was in court because she stole a gold necklace in January of 2011. The judge placed her on probation.
In order not to violate her probation, Lindsay Lohan had to do two things. She had to undergo psychological counseling, and she had to complete 480 hours of community service. A total of 360 of those hours were to be preformed at the Downtown Women’s Center, (in Los Angeles), and the other 120 hours were to be served at the L.A. County morgue. If you figure for an eight hour “day”, then this equals 60 days of community service.
At this time, Lindsay Lohan has only completed 4 of those 60 days of community service, (and it took two months for her to get that far). She also has not undergone any psychological counseling. Lindsay Lohan’s lawyer told the court that that her client “had not enrolled in therapy because finding low-cost, individual treatment was proving a challenge.”
The judge has given her 21 days to enroll in the counseling. If she fails to do so, her probation will be revoked, (which likely means she will spend some time in jail). Fortunately, the actress’s father, Michael Lohan, has offered to pay for her health insurance for her. It seems that her father thought his daughter had insurance coverage through SAG (the Screen Actor’s Guild), but now it seems that she doesn’t have that coverage after all.
The judge has not decided delve into Lindsay Lohan’s finances at this time. Therefore, the general public can only guess about how much money the actress makes, or where that money might be going.
It is worth noting that not all health insurance policies will cover the cost of psychological treatment. Some will cover rehabilitation programs that help people recover from addictions to drugs or alcohol. She is going to have to look very closely at exactly what the policy will cover before signing it, in order to make certain that it will cover her psychological counseling.
Often, affordable psychological counseling can be found at local clinics, or government run health centers. I’ve no idea if Lindsay Lohan has investigated those potential options for psychological counseling, or if she has yet to do so.
Image by avrilllllla on Flickr