Posts filed under ‘Affordable Care Act’
COBRA: My love-hate relationship with insurance gap coverage
When I left my last job, I thought I was going to immediately start on the insurance plan at my current job. Unfortunately I was wrong- there was a month in which I needed to wait before I could become part of my company’s insurance plan. For many people, this wouldn’t be an issue- just go without insurance for a month and then start on the new plan on the first of the next month. However, when you have an autoimmune disease, you shouldn’t have a lapse in insurance- you never know when something is going to happen where you will need your insurance.
For Dan and I, there was a whole other reason for needing to have insurance during that month- Remicade.
Remicade is administered once every 6-8 weeks to people with moderate to severe Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Dan has been on Remicade since August 2010 and it has been his miracle drug. He goes every six weeks for a two hour Remicade infusion and that’s it for his medication. Since Remicade is a miracle drug, it has a hefty price tag associated with it- as much as $10,000 per infusion without insurance.
So here’s our predicament:
I left my last job on May 24 and the insurance from that job expired on May 31. Dan was scheduled to get his Remicade infusion mid-June and, while you can push it back a few days, we couldn’t push it back two weeks until we started on my new insurance. And lord knows, we can’t afford the cost of the drug without insurance.
So what could we do?
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Come Friday, Patients Will Begin To Feel Impact of Sequestration
Sequestration is the buzz word lately.
With the $85 billion in spending cuts set to hit the government, and subsequently all Americans, March 1, it’s time to learn how this will really impact health care.
The unfortunate thing is that there are very few real details out there about the sequester, and as we all know, the devil is in the details. All that is available is estimates as to how it will impact federal agencies and the states as a whole. But there’s no doubt that health care in the country will suffer if our leaders don’t figure things out by Friday.
Caring for Crohn’s Affordable Care Act Primer Part 3:
In the third installment of the Caring for Crohn’s Affordable Care Act Primer, I explore the aspects of the law that affect those 65 and older.
The Affordable Care Act is designed to strengthen Medicare, make preventive services affordable, and close the “donut hole” (discounts on medications that fall in the coverage gap.
Caring for Crohn’s Affordable Care Act Primer Part 2: Insurance Choices & Costs
In this second installment of the Caring for Crohn’s Affordable Care Act Primer, I explain the provisions of the law designed to increase affordability and accessibility to health insurance.
Caring for Crohn’s Affordable Care Act Primer Part 1: Consumer Rights & Protections
The more I write and talk about the Affordable Care Act, the more I realize people actually are not that familiar with the specific details of the law. I will do my best to summarize the important parts and provide you with the implementation dates. However, for real specific questions, you should visit www.healthcare.gov– it’s an invaluable source providing all the information you could ever want on the law. It’s also where I got all of the information below from.
Because the law is so massive, I will be breaking this down into several posts by category: consumer rights and protections, insurance choices and cost, senior services, and employers. Today’s post will address provisions related to consumer rights and protections.
New Year, New Provisions of the Affordable Care Act Effective
Now that we are officially in 2013, new provisions of the Affordable Care Act (health care reform) become effective. As I wrote last year, there are many provisions in the Affordable Care Act that are extremely important for IBD patients, like eradicating the preexisting condition exclusions. While that doesn’t go into effect for another year, there are some important aspects of the law that go into effect this year.
Below is a list of those provisions and what they entail. All information was obtained from the timeline on www.healthcare.gov.
Affordable Care Act and Crohn’s
For the past week, the Supreme Court case testing the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Health Care Reform or Obamacare) has filled the news cycle, leaving people wondering if the entire law would end up being repealed.
Today, the decision came out and the SCOTUS is upholding the law, with the exception of the Medicaid expansion provision. This is great news for Crohnies because if the law was struck down entirely, options for health insurance would revert back to the limited ones available previously.
With this huge news, its important to discuss, specifically, what the law does for Crohn’s patients and their families.
Caring for Crohn's & UC 