Okay. If you have been uninsured longer the the required length of time, you have to answer some health questions. As I see it. You suspect something is wrong but do not know for sure and have not had it confirmed. Your moral dilemma is this: Do you answer those health questions with what you suspect is wrong with you or not? Do you go to the doctor and have him confirm your suspicions beforehand and answer the questions honestly? Or, do you answer the questions now before anything has been confirmed? Pre-existing conditions require a waiting period. I personally, would fill out the application now as I am not a doctor and am not qualified to diagnose myself. This would be what I would do if I did not suspect something. But, I'm not you so you would have to face your own moral dilemmas for the answer to this question .

if they require a physical before covering you and they uncover something during that physical they will consider it a pre-existing condition and therefore not cover it. even after you have secured insurance they can deny you coverage for basically anything and force you to fight to get something paid. i am guessing the problems people have had w/ insurance or not having insurance are what is driving a change nationally. myself i'm happy w/ what i got (thou i am in perfect health) but understand others' may not be happy.

i myself have never in my life been w/o health insurance, i bought from age 18-thru college then always worked for someone who provided it. in 2006 i went to a job w/o insurance but only because my DH worked for the county and had awesome cheap insurance i got on. when he was leaving that job i left a job i absolutely loved and made ALOT of $$ at, to go back to a previous employer doing something i'm very good at but not my passion just to maintain having health insurance, that's how important it is to me. i have no big health issues (have endometriosis w/o treatment) but it only takes 1 serious event to cost alot of out of pocket $$. i am 41, go for my mammogram and pap every yr and that is it. i went last fall to the publix nurse in a box for a sinus infection and that has been it for 4 yrs other than the wellness tests mentioned.

in 2005 i had a very serious staph infection in my jaw & neck, needed alot of bloodwork, Xrays, doc & specialist visits and an MRI. i had very good insurance and i still paid $3K out of pocket. i also missed 6 weeks of work and since then i've had AFLAC disability to cover any missed days of work (luckily i've never needed it since then). i could not sleep at night if my DH & i didn't have health insurance, heck even my dogs have had it for 9 yrs now. ~ liz

Also, take into consideration that some conditions take time to develop. A pre-existing condition doesn't just require a doctor's diagnosis BEFORE purchasing the insurance; if he/she determined the condition had been developing for a period of time, the insurance could still be denied. Example: diabetes doesn't just occur spontaneously overnight. It develops over time. So you could have undiagnosed diabetes, take out health insurance today and be denied coverage for anything having to do with the diabetes since it existed prior to your coverage.

My understanding is a pre-existing condition IF you've been diagnoised with it...DIAGNOISED as in SEEN A DOCTOR for the condition within the last X amount of time (as specified from the health insurance company). They can then only exclude you from being covered FROM THAT CONDITION for a period of UP TO 1 year (I think it's one year, it may be 18 months)....NOT FOREVER.

IF you had had health insurance, and been covered, even if you'd had a pre-existing condition you would have had to be covered.

So you THINK you have something, but have not been diagnoised, you do NOT have a pre-exising condition (from the definitioni I've seeen on any health insurance form I've ever filled out).

Vickey-MN

The only thing you're making sense about is that it wasn't a good idea to not have health insurance.
Remedy the situation now, and get some basic health insurance.

Right now, you're diagnosing yourself...you may not have a serious problem. Get the insurance, and then go to a doctor.

If you do have a problem, it could get worse whether you do or don't have insurance...so better to have the insurance.

Sooner or later, you may really need it...and not have it unless you do something now.

I know I should have had it all this time. We just couldn't afford it.
I get the feeling I will be SOL if I have something wrong. I don't know if I should just go to a county clinic, or what. I'm not even sure how that all works to be honest.

Thanks guys.
Rita

In Rita May's defense, sometimes the choices we have to make are difficult. It's easy to say that it isn't a good idea to not have health insurance. But the cost can be prohibitive. I don't know if prices are uniform all over the country or not, but I can tell you that here in California private insurance costs are outrageous. And fewer and fewer employers are offering health insurance to employees, or are making them pay a large portion of it. And because DH has had cancer, changing insurances isn't a real option for us (remember pre-existing conditions). Every year when our contract renews, of course the price goes up. Last year we were paying more than $1,100 per month for the two of us to have medical and dental. In June, when our contract came up for renewal, it was going up another $200+. So we ended up moving to a plan with less coverage to bring the cost down. And this is with a high deductible. So every month I pay for the privilege of SAYING that we have health coverage, but we pay full price until our large deductible is met (we're healthy, so deductible is never met). We argue about this subject every month when I write the check. He says we're throwing our money away. I argue that, while I agree that it's not helping us out now, chances are that as we get older we may need to be hospitalized for one thing or another and that is when the insurance will become "worth it".

Many people have to choose between having health insurance and having food on the table. It isn't any wonder that there are so many uninsured. Sad, sad, sad.

We are in California. Hubby's comapny used to pay for his insurance, now they only pay half. And they don't cover spouses at all.

Years ago I had plenty good health insurance (thru my job). I had frequent visits to the gynecologist for a recurring yeast infection and, later, benign fibroid tumors of the uterus. The I got married and decided to get life insurance. Seems the life ins company contacted my health insurance company. The life insurance company gave me a policy but there was a rider:If I died from any illness of the reproductive system, they wouldn't pay!

This could easily slide into a Hot Topic, as Rita May, you are so far from alone. Please, don't apologize for not being able to afford health care-- millions of hard-working people cannot. Yes, it's going to be tough for you to get health insurance and if you do stretch the truth on the application, you can be sure your new insurance company will uncover it and make you pay back anything they paid out--they pay lots of people big bucks to do just that. It is ridiculous what they are doing now to deny, deny, even those who are scrupulously honest. Can you tell I'm all for a single-payer system?? Much good luck to you. Oh, one more thing. Be very careful about deals that seem to good to be true, because they are. Unfortunately there are lots of rats out there preying on those who need the insurance but may not have the means.

I'm self-employed and have continued my policy from 10 years ago, first thru COBRA, then thru HIPAA, since I was denied separate coverage due to basically being overweight. I pay $612 a MONTH just for me. COBRA and HIPAA guarantee that you can get coverage when you lose a job, but not that the coverage will be AFFORDABLE. Grrrr.

Instead of piece-mealing it over a couple of years, I decided this would be my year of screenings (colon, gyn, anything else I can think of), just so I could max out my deductible. I have now ($2500), and I have several other follow-up procedures this fall, all of which will be "free". I'm also thinking about having some knee surgery and a breast reduction since those would be covered as well. Except for everything above, I am generally very healthy and usually don't see a Dr. except for the occasional cold or flu, and to get cortisone injections 2-3X/year for my knee.

Anyway, I pay over $7200 a year on the off chance that I might need medical care. Highway robbery.

Very timely question. I understand not being able to afford good, comprehensive health insurance, and being afraid you will be denied coverage. It's one of the biggest things wrong with this country. (But that's a Hot Topic.)

Rita, would it help at all to get 'catastrophic' health insurance? We bought that for our DS when he aged out of DH's company's coverage. It's relatively inexpensive, but it would protect you from HUGE health care bills. (As it happened DS had a botched appendectomy and spent weeks in the hospital in a medically required private room while his open incision healed. The policy paid 100%.) It won't pay for routine doctor visits, but it would probably cover ER.

It could be that for now you'd be ahead to just pay MD bills out of pocket because any health insurance you can get would be so expensive.

We can afford it, but it galls me to pay out the same for our medical and dental (insurance premiums + out-of-pocket + meds) as I spend on food! We are not foodies! And we are not 'sickies' -- few meds, pretty darn healthy.

Chisue, the coverage we downgraded to is catastrophic. But I don't consider it to be relatively inexpensive. Our monthly premium is $725.94 - yearly total = $8,711.28. That is a lot less than the premium I was paying last year, but the deductible is $5,500 for each of us and the total deductible of $11,000 must be met before either of us can receive free or discounted services. No free ER either. The only services we don't have to pay for are my yearly mammogram and one physical per year.

Remember the old joke about the fellow who visits his doctor and a black dog walks into the examining room and looks the man over and then leaves, and then a cat walks into the room and looks him over and leaves? When the man got the bill he hit the roof and asked the doctor about the outrageous charges. The doctor says, "Well, you did have a cat scan and lab tests".

DH saw the doctor a couple of weeks ago for what amounted to jock itch. His doctor told him what it was, but said that she wanted a specialist to look at it. And that's just what the specialist did. Didn't touch him. Didn't even get very close to him. DH paid $100 to see the doctor and then later got a bill for $350 for the "specialist". Now, I expect people to get paid for their services, but really.

donna -- Egads! That's a hefty premium, especially with all those hoops and ladders before the policy pays off! Could be what we bought seemed reasonable because it was 15 years ago -- before the insurance moguls had 'got the hang of it' (milking the gullible American public)! Also, DS was 21 at the time we started the policy.

Hee-hee at your cat and lab joke! I can use some humor, having just come home from a mammography. I hate these things. They don't hurt, but half the time they find 'something' that has to be 'checked out', I have breasts full of biopsy scars -- all for a big zero outcome, but lot of pain and worry.

Can you get anything thru the State of California? Not the stuff that is free but the stuff for the other people, the people with in-between income. I have known lots that have gotten it here. Maybe they have this in your state or county? It'd be worth a try.

Good luck. I too have been without health insurance and that was when I had kids. I know the hard decisions that sometimes have to be made. Please keep us posted.

Scissors, when I was "shopping" for a better deal on insurance I checked with the county. Everyone says how reasonable it is. Well, they were actually $200 more than what I ended up with.