After a decade of working for the Health Insurance industry it has come to great consternation to me to find that I’m now being paid back for all those years of hell I helped inflict on others. I left the industry in 1995, and it has taken 13 years for the industry to come after me.
In 2006 I was laid off of my job (the third layoff I have experienced) when the company I worked for Intelliden Corporation decided to move all their engineering to Ireland. When that happened I was left without employment, or insurance benefits. I therefore took COBRA which is a half-baked law put on the books to ensure employees have a means for health coverage while they find other employment. I say the law is half-baked since it was never really complete, and the framers never went back to complete it. Anyway…that is another story.
Since I was laid off, I have taken jobs with contract firms, and through networking, to keep me afloat till I found steady work. After 18 months of unemployment, or partial employment, my benefits ran out. I could no longer keep COBRA benefits through my employer. So…my benefits were cancelled.
I therefore applied for coverage on my own. I should note that during my time on COBRA, or for the last ten years, I have never filed a claim outside the normal flu, scrape, or physical. I am in pretty good health for a 43 year old man. I work out three hours a day (that’s right…three hours a day). I run four marathons as year, and I ride a mountain bike almost daily up the mountains around my house. My resting heart rate is below 60. My cholesterol is below 100 and my normal blood pressure is 100/60. I regularly ride with professional cycling atheletes and take pleasure in working out with kids half my age and making them hurl their breakfast during what I like to call my “warmup.”
So it came as a great shock to me when I found that I am uninsurable. They attest that I have past claims that prevent me from gaining coverage. This is information from United Health Care, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, and a few others. In their notes to me they listed physicians and records that I was to review for my answers. To my amazement, I never heard of any of the physicians. In fact, one office I called said the physician listed was no longer on staff at that clinic, and in fact was working overseas and had been during the provided dates of service.
I have spent the better part of the last year attempting to find out why I can’t be covered. But no one has been able to provide me any information. However, I have found that since I started my own company due to not being able to find regular employment that the state requires insurers to provide small employers with medical benefits. However, they get to set the rate at any point they see fit. So…if you’re reading, and have some extra cash. I could use it. UHC wants 850.00 per month to cover a single-white-male with no medical history.
Paybacks are a bitch.