Re: [at-l] Short-term health insurance?

["W F Thorneloe, MD" <thornel@attglobal.net>]

Well said. There have been problems with some HMO's and PPO's of refusing 
to pay Emergency Room visits for failure to obtain prior approval, even in 
the event of trauma or loss of consciousness. This creates havoc for the 
facilities and for the patients.

The idea of a high deductible insurance is an excellent idea. One means is 
via a Medical Savings Account (sort of like an IRA), or by purchasing 
basically a catastrophic coverage policy, and plan on having access to $10K 
or so before coverage kicks in. These policies typically allow you to do 
your own management, rather than a clerk a Drop Dead Reviewers, Inc. While 
DDRI can save some money for the insurer, it is nice to know that your care 
is based on your needs, and not on the harassment of your doc by the clerk.

Often folks can find short term catastrophic coverage through alumni 
associations and the like. Rarely will COBRA offer to change coverage 
options, even for higher deductibles - the idea is to get rid of the person 
wanting COBRA coverage.

BTW, I just received 90+ messages from the list after over a day's silence. 
I'm finally getting something!

OrangeBug
Atlanta, GA

At 05:46 PM 2/14/2000 -0800, Cora Drake wrote:
>Health insurance is not established to benefit policyholders (yes, I just 
>said it's a collosal ripoff). If we'd all take a squinty-eyed look at what 
>we pay for, what we get, and what we actually need, we'd put the bulk of 
>our premiums into our portfolios, carry coverage only against catastrophic 
>medical expenses, and just PAY our doctor bills on the rare occasions we 
>actually have any.

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