Topic: If you have Lyme as a pre-existing condition, can you buy insurance?
canbravelyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9785
posted
And what would be not considered pre-existing? Negative Igenex? Do they go by Clinical Diagnosis? And I'm talking about the better insurance companies that pay for things like Igenex testing...
I'm having to pay out of pocket, and I'm wondering whether it would be economical? to purchase a US plan until this treatment is complete or tapers off.
With best wishes to all,
canbravelyme.
-------------------- For medical advice related to Lyme disease, please see an ILADS physician. Posts: 1494 | From Getting there... | Registered: Aug 2006
| IP: Logged |
Aniek
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5374
posted
You don't know until you try. I know stories of insurance companies refusing to cover an adult male who had childhood asthma, even though he had no asthma symptoms for 20 years.
The big problem is that, even if you can get insurance on the indvidual market, it will probably deny coverage for any pre-existing condition. So, if you have any record of having Lyme, it would deny coverage for treating Lyme.
You need to basically read everything as careful as possible and remember the goal of the insurance company is to spend so little on you that you drop the coverage within 15 months.
-------------------- "When there is pain, there are no words." - Toni Morrison Posts: 4711 | From Washington, DC | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
Vanilla
Unregistered
posted
I looked into this and found first you have to be refused insurance and then if you live in CA you can get insurance through a program after getting refused first and Blue Cross is the best for LD patients and it would have been about $700. a month and not covered everything and they could not even tell me just exactly what it would cover. It did not look cost effective for me to get it so I am just stuck paying everything out of pocket. Besides most LLMDs in the USA make you pay out of pocket and then you have to fight with the insurance companies tooth and nail to collect from them.
Try and get you meds for free at least if possible.
IP: Logged |
-------------------- When you reach your "wits-end" remember this: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27 Posts: 397 | From Loudoun County Virginia | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged |
Aniek
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5374
posted
Depending on your income levels, you can get free or highly discounted meds from many of the drug companies.
This website will tell you what programs you are likely eligible for and allow you to print out the applications and send them in. You can also do it by phone.
-------------------- "When there is pain, there are no words." - Toni Morrison Posts: 4711 | From Washington, DC | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
Foggy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1584
posted
Also depends on your state. In Ma you can't be denied for pre-exist.
Posts: 2451 | From Lyme Central | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
canbravelyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9785
posted
Wow, Foggy; that's fascinating.
Thanks, everyone. I'm going to look into this and see whether it's economical.
Best,
canbravelyme.
-------------------- For medical advice related to Lyme disease, please see an ILADS physician. Posts: 1494 | From Getting there... | Registered: Aug 2006
| IP: Logged |
WildCondor
Unregistered
posted
How can something exist before it existed? It can't, so you don't have a pre-existing condition becaue there can't logically be such a thing.
IP: Logged |
posted
this probably too late for this dicussion, but here is what I am wondering about.
Suppose I am 50 y.o. and I switch employers (happens all the time, right?) By the time I am 50 y.o. I will have developed SOMETHING - say, high blood pressure. Then, what, I am SOL. no coverage for medicine? The reality is, I am only 30 y.o., and my chances of switching employers are high.
Here is another thought. If insurance companies deny the existence of long-term Lyme disease, how can they consider it a preexisting condition, if, according to them, Lyme diease is over after 2 weeks of antibitics? Hello? Am I the only one seeing the paradox here?
Posts: 59 | From CA | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[hi]](graemlins/hi.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic