In these new economic times when fresh graduates have it much harder than the previous generations to find a solid job with health benefits worth mentioning, many young adults are perplexed while looking for possiblities of removing a big financial uncertainty about possible health costs and looking for ways to purchase a suitable health insurance.

The recent new health care law of 2010, while attempting to reduce costs of healthcare by driving toward the single-payer system, has a four year (until 2014) adaptation period, during which the transition is supposed to happen. Unfortunately, this causes even more confusion in an already fragmented, and complicated health care system in the US.

In this article we will provide the basic options for a young adult over 26 years to find a health insurance that will allow him or her to sleep well knowing that, even in the case of an accident, or any other catastrophic health event, requiring major medical intervention, the financial situation of the person will not be jeopardized, and that the insurance will be able to take care of the majority of the medical treatment cost.

While the following options are always subject to change, especially between now and 2014, it is likely that all of these options will remain in place at least until 2014. Unfortunately, age 26 marks the age when a young adult can not be insured under the parent’s health insurance plan, according to the health care law of 2010. The existing options include getting insurance through employment, getting it either on the individual insurance market or from one of the standard state health insurances for low income citizens during the time of unemployment or part time employment, and, in case of pre-existing conditions, from the newly-created federal pre-existing condition insurance plan, PCIP. One option that is not available to young adults over 26 years old is family health insurance plan through one of their parents.

Health insurance plans through employment: This remains the main source of insurance of young adults. In the coming years, you can expect higher premiums, higher deductibles, and higher copayments with health insurances through work, and fewer employers even offering them, but at least the employee can not be denied the insurance due to the pre-existing condition.

Private or individual health insurance coverage: When group insurance through employment is unavailable, there is always an option to purchase insurance on the individual market. The high deductible individual health insurance and major medical insurance are especially popular. However, the underwriting of individual policies is subject to filling out application forms, and the insurance can be declined due to what insurance company deems a pre-existing condition. Which can be something as simple as being overweight for example. It can even be a condition that you have in the meantime been healed from. Furthermore, for certain “pre-existing conditions” such as pregnancy, there can be waiting periods of as much as 18 to 24 months. The current health care law does not require insurers to accept applications of people over 19 years of age who have a pre-existing condition.

State sponsored health insurance policies such as Medicaid and Healthy Families: These have strict rules and limits on personal income or family income of an applicant, and will only kick in when one’s income falls below those limits. Because of current budget crunches on the state level, individual states have been recently scaling back these health insurance benefits. This trend is expected to continue.

Pre-existing condition insurance plan: When you are over 26 years old, make too much money to qualify for state sponsored health insurance, yet are unable to get health insurance either from your employer or on an individual insurance market due to a pre-existing condition, there is a new way out, the PCIP, or the pre-existing condition insurance plan, sponsored either by the federal government or by individual states. This is the real benefit coming from the health care plan of 2010. You will get a reasonably priced insurance with great benefits, and you will not be declined regardless of any pre-existing condition. The only drawback of the PCIP plan is the waiting period of 6 months, during which you will not be able to have any insurance.

Health Insurance Companies Find Loophole In Children’s Coverage

Due to the sheer length of the healthcare reform bill, it was probably inevitable that there would be a handful of errors sprinkled in. However, this one is pretty significant. It has the potential to affect what has been touted as one of the legislation’s immediate impacts: health coverage for children.

President Obama has promoted the benefit targeted at children, which is intended to prevent insurers from denying children coverage due to a pre-existing health condition. Such a provision is clearly popular with the public. Eliminating restrictions on pre-existing conditions is favored by the public in general–although they are split on the best way to go about it–but it is even more appealing for children. Unlike adults, who sometimes contribute to their own conditions, kids aren’t ill by any fault of their own. While still controversial, the promise of that immediate benefit has caused some people to come around to healthcare reform.

Unfortunately, it appears that the legal language may not be strong enough. Health insurance companies have had their lawyers poring over the final legislation, and they believe that it is not clear enough. Their interpretation of the provision is that it only requires them to cover pre-existing conditions for children whom are already insured. According to them, it does not mean that they are forced to write a new policy for a child with pre-existing conditions.

While preventing children from being denied affordable health insurance is clearly the intent of the bill’s Democratic authors, intent isn’t enough in the eyes of the court. Industry lawyers also state that the bill allows health insurers to increase their premiums for those with pre-existing conditions. Specifically, the provision does not mention an immediate “guaranteed issue” requirement; rather, it only states that providers “may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion”. That means that there will no longer be a paradox where a child is covered, yet their most significant health problem is not; a very expensive and annoying issue for parents. It is unconscionable that Congress managed to miss this error, even if the bill is 2,000 pages long!

What can be done now? The Obama administration is planning to release regulations that clarify the fact that “pre-existing” refers to both initial access to insurance and receiving full benefits once in it, but such regulations may see challenges. Democrats are working on crafting emergency legislation that would fix the bill and close this loophole, but there’s a small chance that Republicans would choose to filibuster in the Senate in order to maximize the other party’s embarrassment. If worst comes to worst, children with pre-existing conditions won’t be guaranteed access to health insurance plans until 2014, when a similar requirement for adults takes effect. Existing skepticism over the health care bill will heighten in that case.

Missouri personal injury lawyer discusses what can be done when an accident victim does not have health insurance. Having no health insurance presents a serious problem when trying to get medical treatment for injuries sustained in an accident. There are things that an injury attorney can do to help victims with no health insurance.