Insurance, preparing for the unexpected

My husband is self-employed. For the first 9 years of our marriage, I worked and provided health and dental insurance. When I stopped working to be at home with our daughter, our benefits ended. We were without insurance for a couple of years. I tried to apply through the Federal Government’s “Health Marketplace” website (for Obama Care), but we were denied coverage, because according to their calculations, we qualified for Medicaid. So I applied for Medicaid through the Utah Department of Workforce Services site.

They denied us because we made too much money for their criteria. I gave up on applying for insurance, knowing that I was taking a risk and that we would have to pay penalties for having no insurance. Freedom from the runaround headache outweighed the loss from penalties, until… April of this year, when I found myself in the ER because of complications from a health condition that I have. My condition is not life threatening, but it is painful. My Dr. recommended that I have surgery ASAP.  A $25,000 surgery was not an option without insurance.

So I applied for insurance again two year after my first attempt. This time I applied for Medicaid first and was ~ you guessed it ~ denied coverage. This time, our denial from Medicaid became our ticket to Obama Care. You cannot apply for coverage outside of the open enrollment period (around Oct/Nov), but there are a few exceptions to that rule, like change in employment, change in family member count, and denial from Medicaid. Their denial letter was sent to the Market Place, which gave me the key to that locked door.

Long story short; I applied, we qualified for coverage including premium payment assistance. We now have better Health Insurance than we have ever had (even when I was employed by Intermountain Healthcare)! Our coverage started on July 1st. On July 2nd my husband was diagnosed with a disease that requires frequent medical attention and expensive medication that would have been beyond our ability to pay. Call it coincidence if you want, I call it miracles and Divine Intervention.

If you don’t have insurance, apply for Medicaid through the Department of Workforce Services. If you are disabled or over the age of 65, apply for Medicare. If you are denied coverage, apply for Obama Care through the Health Care Marketplace. If you need help with any of this, call or e-mail me. I can walk you through it or direct you to someone else who can. I can also tell you about financial assistance through Intermountain Healthcare. If your medical bills are beyond what you can pay, they will help you by setting up a monthly payment plan or in some cases, writing off a portion of what you owe.