California has been given federal funding that will be used to extend its preexisting condition program. This has allowed more than 6,000 people who have a preexisting condition to be able to obtain health insurance coverage. The program is intended to last until federal health reform kicks in in 2014.
California was given $761 million in federal funding that is to be used for the state’s preexisting condition program. The state will receive $347 million of that funding in 2012. The rest will be used in the next few years, in order to fund a preexisting condition program in the gap between now and when the federal health care reform is ready to begin in 2014.
The preexisting condition insurance program in California will provide interim coverage for people who have certain types of preexisting conditions. Those conditions include: cancer, heart disease, and some other long-term disorders.
It will cover things like doctor visits, hospital stays, and medications for a group of people who currently have serious problems finding affordable insurance coverage. In order to be eligible for the program, a California resident must have been uninsured for six months, and must have been denied coverage because of their preexisting condition. More than 6,000 people have been enrolled into this health insurance program.
In January of 2014, insurance companies will be required by law to accept patients who have previous illnesses. The insurers will no longer be allowed to charge those customers higher rates than they would for people who do not have preexisting conditions.
Ideally, the goal of those laws is to force health insurance companies to change the way they have been making a profit. Right now, if an insurer wants to make more money, it can choose to avoid covering people who are seriously ill, or who have a preexisting condition that could be expensive for the insurer to provide coverage for. Another thing insurers do is charge sick people more money for their health insurance policy.
Many people feel that those types of practices are immoral, and want insurance companies to stop thinking of sick people as nothing more than an expense. In general, people buy health insurance to help them with their medical bills in case they become sick, or if they already are sick. It doesn’t seem fair to intentionally make it more expensive for sick people to buy insurance, especially since that is the group who needs that coverage the most.
There are some flaws with the California preexisting condition program. It comes with copays and deductibles, in addition to monthly premiums that can range from $199 to $535. The cost of premiums was cut last year, but that cost is still too high for some people to afford.
Image by 401K on Flickr