Pardon the person blog post here, but as it relates to health insurance, I thought I'd post it here.
For the past two years while I've been self-employed I've had an individual health insurance policy through Group Health, a health cooperative in Seattle. I had a high deductible catastrophic plan combined with a health savings accounts, and I was very happy with my policy.
As I'm no longer living in Seattle and we've embarked on a big trip, I updated my address to my girlfriend's dad's house in Massachusetts for the duration of our trip. Apparently, by updating my address Group Health canceled my policy as Massachusetts is outside their service area. This came as a surprise and gives me about ten days to find another policy. Even if I re-update my address back to Seattle, Group Health requires documentation that I live there, which I am unable to provide (no pay stubs, no lease agreement, etc.)
This is very annoying - I liked having an individual policy precisely because I thought it was portable, but right as I've embarked on my trip I need to find new insurance. Plus, since I'm traveling, I don't even have a home address (other than where we're forwarding our mail - but we don't live there).
I checked into getting a policy based out of Massachusetts, using the address where our mail is forwarded, but the policies were more than triple what I was currently paying and I couldn't keep my health savings account (I could keep my prior contributions of course, but I couldn't continue to contribute, which by loss of the tax deduction would make the total cost to me more than four times my current plan). Plus, Massachusetts does not allow high-deductible policies so I'd be paying for coverage I don't want and will never use. And, again, I don't live there.
So, after doing some searching (and cursing), I've applied for a high-deductible policy with Blue-Cross/Blue Shield of Idaho, where my girlfriend's mom lives. I have no idea if they will accept me, but the plan is what I want - high deductible, low premium and I'm able to continue to contribute to my HSA.
To me, this illustrates a major problem with the individual health insurance market. You can't buy policies across state lines. For all the talk from the left about a "public option" to foster competition amongst insurance companies, just allowing people to buy policies from other states would do much more for competition than a public option. Also, why does Massachusetts restrict high-deductible policies? That doesn't make any sense to me.
I suppose I should have kept an address in Seattle for health insurance purposes, but then again, why should I be required to do this? I don't know why there isn't a "traveling" option for health insurance. I only want coverage for a worst-case scenario. This type of coverage shouldn't be so hard (or expensive) to get.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
So this is annoying
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Ouch, major suck! Can you just get some kind of travel insurance for your international trip? Maybe there are plans that include high deductible medical?
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that Massachusetts doesn't seem to allow high-deductible policies, even for something like "travel insurance". From what I can tell, as soon as you use a MA address for your application, you're stuck using the "connector" to get insurance. It's certainly harder to navigate and figure out then it needs to be.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, I've been accepted for coverage with Blue Cross of Idaho. I updated my address to be Jaimee's mom's address in Idaho while we're away, and we both now have high-deductible coverage while we're traveling. Compared to if we'd been in MA we're saving about $300 a month, or probably $3,000 over the length of our trip. And, as a bonus, my Idaho policy is actually cheaper than my Washington policy, although it has a higher deductible.