Coverage Denied Stories:

Reading the Fine Print
Angie does hours of research just to find her pre-existing condition cuts almost all options.

Coverage Denied

Rejection by insurance companies jeopardizes a diabetic woman’s health.

Pre-Existing Conditions Keep People Out
Even for physicians health insurance premiums can be too expensive to maintain if family members have pre-existing conditions.

Amy Velasquez

How do you get specialty care if you are uninsured and diagnosed with a chronic condition?

The Forgotten Many

How those with a chronic illness are often outside access to care

Need to Expand Mental Health Access
Bipolar disorder should not control Carol Kelly’s life.

No Place Left to Turn
By making the choice to care for her sick husband, Carolyn unwittingly sacrificed her own health care.

Hard Work Doesn’t Always Pay Off
Bill and Jean lost their health insurance, financial security, and peace of mind after Bill’s position was eliminated.

Bad Timing
A woman’s divorce caused her to lose her health insurance while she was fighting cancer.

Get In Line: The Crisis of Specialty Care
With Cook County’s proposed budget cuts, Cynthia wonders if her son will ever get the care he desperately needs.

Holes in the Safety Net: the Uninsured and Specialty Care
Often the uninsured can wait months for specialty care treatment.

Insurance only for the Healthy?
An Illinois Woman’s struggle to find affordable health insurance

The Rural Face of the Health Care Crisis
Residents of Southern Illinois struggle to access care as many providers leave the area.

Profit Margin
The state of the current health care system makes it difficult for many Illinois families to obtain quality healthcare.

The Middle Road

Juanita is one of many in Illinois that find themselves in insurance limbo because of the lack of available options tied to middle incomes.

Forgotten by the System
When a divorce occurs, provisions are made for financial support, but many spouses, particularly women, are left high and dry when it comes to health care.

A Dream Deferred
A woman must choose between feeling secure in her health and pursuing her dream of owning a small business.

Marguerite Van Ness
As an independent contractor, Marguerite is not offered employer sponsored benefits and has been unable to access them on the private market.

Walking the Employment Tightrope
Should pre-existing conditions put you on an insurance company’s blacklist for life?

Recipe for Disaster: Bad Luck and No Health Insurance
A young man’s struggle to stay positive in the face of crushing medical debt and continued illness.

No Access Equals No Prevention
Doctors did not pick up on Mitch’s cancer due to his intermittent health coverage.

Small Business Without Health Coverage: Middle Class Hurting
Nancy Mullen works full-time and still cannot purchase health insurance.

Small Business Employees Struggle to Get By
Neil must delay health care and deal with high out-of-pocket costs because his employer is unable to offer health insurance.

Olivia Schreiner
The current design of our health care system means that artists pursue their calling at their own risk.

Patsy Sarlo
Her son worked at Wal-Mary after he was laid off, and was uninsured. He died of a heart attack, having been unable to see a doctor because of the cost for several years.

Sherry Sherman
In between jobs and uninsured, Sherry got into a car accident, which resulted in over $80,000 in medical bills.

The Phantom Illness
Susan Orr cannot obtain insurance on the individual market because of a bureaucratic error that is frustratingly difficult to correct.

Susan Staskowski
Young adults aged 19 to 29 are now the largest and fastest growing segment of the US population without health insurance.

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Pre-Existing Conditions Keep People Out

"Even in the physician community," says Chicagoan A. Kesani, "health insurance premiums can be too expensive to maintain if family members, or the physician himself, has a pre-existing condition."

Chicago kidney specialist A. Kesani understands what the uninsured face walking through his clinic doors. Not only do patients have to overcome the barrier of paying for current medical needs, but upon receiving news of a chronic condition or some other troubling diagnosis, a patient’s chance of purchasing health coverage forever after can be limited. “I often say if at all possible, work it out in your budget somehow to purchase health insurance now before I make any kind of a diagnosis,” Dr. Kesani explains. Afterwards, it’s very easy to be deemed ‘uninsurable’ or get stuck with high premiums well beyond one’s financial reach.

Dr. Kesani is especially aware of this due to personal experiences. After practicing medicine for several years in North Dakota, Dr. Kesani decided to move to Chicago and partner with another physician. For a year and a half he purchased COBRA, a temporary continuation of his previous employer-sponsored coverage, for $350 monthly. But when that insurance ran out a pre-existing condition exclusion for his Type 2 Diabetes was added to any conversion package offered by Blue Cross/ Blue Shield.

Although Dr. Kesani has successfully controlled his illness through medication and a healthy lifestyle, in order for the pre-existing condition exclusion to be waived with Blue Cross/ Blue Shield, premiums would jump to $1500 monthly! Dr. Kesani says, "I didn’t purchase the insurance because I felt like it was unfair. I had been with Blue Cross/ Blue Shield for ten years.” Other health insurance companies denied him outright or offered a similar deal. So since January 2007 Dr. Kesani has been uninsured and paying for medical costs on his own.

To have a largely manageable and controlled condition, yet still be priced out of the insurance market has left Dr. Kesani with the conclusion that “health insurance is only for the healthy.” Dr. Kesani was quoted for premiums totaling roughly $18,000 yearly. That’s more than what some individuals or some couples live on for an entire year. The Illinois legislature is currently debating Illinois Covered, a program that would provide more affordable, accessible health insurance options for the state of Illinois, including a solution for Dr. Kesani. It’s urgent that you call your state representatives and ask them to vote “Yes” for Illinois Covered.