the blue cross/blue shield blues

so here i am, only four weeks from grad and the "you mean i have to get a real job?!" panic is starting to set in a little.

now don't get me wrong, i am really looking forward to heading into my professional life, but i am afraid that i will have to base my life decisions on what kind health insurance i can get.

i was diagnosed with MS when i was 20. at that point i had insurance through my mother, and about a year and a half after i was diagnosed, they found something my mother did wrong in her application, and we were kicked off the insurance

enter the "pre-existing condition". when i reached my cobra limit later on, and had to get insurance, i had no options. there is a clause in the HIPAA (health insurance portability and accountability act) laws that requires companies to insure you so long as you were insured at the time of diagnosis and have had continuing coverage since (which i was and did). this is the pre-existing condition" clause. not every state has one, but the state of ohio does have a pre-existing condition clause, so i was guaranteed the basic minimum plan (20% coverage after deductable). that is the only coverage available to me.

i know my anxiety is a little premature, i do not know much about how it works through employment as opposed to individual plans, but i feel limited by needing to think in terms of "what states have no pre-existing clauses?"


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