Health Insurance For High Risk Individuals

Being a diabetic I have long been in favor of health insurance reform. Right now the biggest unknown in my path to financial freedom is my ability to afford health insurance if I was no longer working for a large employer.

I recently heard on the local news about a new high risk insurance pool for those with pre-existing conditions without group health insurance. It turns out that North Carolina has started a state funded high risk insurance pool to help those that don't qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. The goal of this high risk insurance pool is to offer those who qaulify individual heal insurance at 175% of the median price of individal health insurance. The program is funded from the insurance premiums collected and additional funding from the state.

What does this mean?
This is great news for someone like me. My fear has been that even if I achieved my financial goal, I still might not be able to afford health insurance. This at least gives me hope that I would be able to find health insurance that wouldn't be in excess of 175% of the median cost of health insurance. However that doesn't mean the high risk health insurance would be cheap though - take a look at today's monthly premiums for the high risk insurance pool for a Male, nonsmoker:

Age	Plan A	Plan B	Plan C
33	$ 337	$ 253	$ 177
34	$ 347	$ 260	$ 183
35	$ 358	$ 268	$ 188
40	$ 425	$ 318	$ 230
45	$ 523	$ 385	$ 280
50	$ 676	$ 492	$ 361
55	$ 886	$ 641	$ 456
60	$ 1,139	$ 826	$ 589
65	$ 1,388	$ 1,005	$ 757

Plan A - 80% in-network, 50% out of network, $1,000 deductible, Out of pocket maximum $2k in network, $4k out of network, etc
Plan B, - 80% in-network, 50% out of network, $2,500 deductible, Out of pocket maximum $4k in network, $5k out of network, etc
Plan C - HDHP 100% in-network & out of network, $5,000 deductible, Out of pocket maximum $5k in & out of network, etc

Remembering these are today's rates and they adjust annually so in 30 years the monthly cost for a Male 60yrs old will likely be much higher. These insurance costs are still very expensive - they start to make mortgage payments look like pocket change when you factor in the cost for both my spouse and I.

I am pretty excited that there is at least an option out there today that can give me some clarity about how to deal with health insurance with pre-existing conditions at least in our state. Here is a list of high risk insurance pools by state.

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Comments (1)

This is the financial topic I worry most about, hands down - thanks for doing a post on it!

I actually worry about it both in terms of my husband's and my long term situation, and, more immediately, because of the possibility of his parents moving to the US to live with us, but, not being citizens and never having worked here, not being eligible for medicare.

It didn't look to me like they would be necessarily excluded from the plan listed, but I couldn't tell for sure. The pre-existing condition stuff would be an issue for them, though, since they've never had private insurance- they've just lived in a country with state medical care and never had to worry about it.

I'd love to hear any more you come across on this topic!

Posted by T | October 30, 2009 3:36 PM