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Coverage Denied
No Place Left to Turn
When her husband fell sick, Carolyn had to decide whether to keep working and hire someone else to care for him or quit her job and care for him herself. For both financial and personal reasons, Carolyn decided that staying home with her husband was the right decision. Little did she know that deciding to be responsible for her husband’s health would put her own at risk.
When Carolyn decided not to return to work, she was able to temporarily continue her employer-sponsored health insurance through COBRA. This has been a huge burden for Carolyn. The premiums are so high that she has little money left over for anything else. “I don’t have any spending money,” she says. “I can’t do anything really. I just live month to month.” Now her COBRA is about to run out. She tried to secure a plan with her former employer’s insurance company, but they have refused to cover her because of a pre-existing condition. Carolyn was then advised to apply for ICHIP- Illinois’ last resort for those who can’t get insurance anywhere else. As it turns out, Carolyn would have to pay even higher premiums under ICHIP than she was paying under COBRA. Her budget was stretched to the limit before and she simply cannot afford the new plan.
As a result, Carolyn will soon be in the very vulnerable position of being uninsured. She is worried that any illness will lead to financial ruin. Her biggest concern is the possibility of losing her home. Carolyn and her husband have worked hard to pay off their house. Like many other Americans, their home is a source of both security and pride. Carolyn wants change. “A national system would be better than what we have now,” she asserts. “Everyone wouldn’t have to live in fear of losing what they have if they get sick.” Carolyn feels that the current administration ignores the problems of ordinary Americans. “Bush doesn’t care about the little guy, out there making the country run” she says. Instead, he is looking out for the wealthy — including highly compensated insurance executives.
Because the Bush administration has been so resistant to real change, many states, including Illinois, have taken the lead in health care reform. The Health Care Justice Act of 2004 made universal health care a policy goal for the state of Illinois. It also set up a Task Force to study the best way to implement this goal. A major component of the Task Force’s recommendation to the legislature is the institution of guaranteed issue in the small group and individual markets. This means that insurance companies would no longer be able to turn people like Carolyn down. This, coupled with caps on rate increases and other cost-containing measures recommended by the Task Force, would have a huge impact on the Lees and the thousands of others like them in Illinois.
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