California's PreExisting condition insurance

peggy_j

FYI in case this is helpful to anyone. (I heard this website mentioned when I was on hold calling a doctor's office. ha). This information is confusing  but it looks like the MRMIP plan allows you to apply for insurance if you expect to be losing coverage due to losing your job (and you're not eligible for COBRA.) ?

 http://www.pcip.ca.gov/PCIP_Program/PCIP_MRMIP_Comparison.aspx

Medigal

Peggy:  Please note that if the California PCIP is under the same rules as the rest of the country, you have to be without any healthcare coverage for 6 months before you can purchase this insurance.  Most people with chronic medical conditions cannot go without insurance for six months so this is not plausible for many.  I have written many letters to my senators, Obama, etc. about this clause in the PCIP and asked why they put it in there.  After months of letter writing, I just got a response from Boehner which said they put this clause in because they feared the companies would be over-run with people trying to purchase the plans and this would limit this.  Well!  They really botched up on this one because it seems now they are griping that not enough people are purchasing the plans as they thought.  Simple answer.  Take that idiotic clause out!  Too simple for Washington to undo anything so please double check the PCIP rules for your state before you decide to buy into it.  The price was cheaper than the COBRA when I checked it out for a relative but she could not go without insurance for 6 months so we put her on COBRA and are grateful to have it.

Another thing no one seems to be considering about the real problem of the "6 months without insurance clause", imo, is that if you do this and then can't get the PCIP for any reason, you will have destroyed the other rule for people with pre-existing diseases that they have to show "continuos" coverage to be able to buy health insurance and can't go over (I think it is) about 63 days without insurance.  Washington doesn't have the PCIP well thought out, imo so I would be very concerned about fooling with it until I made sure getting involved in it would not destroy chances for other health coverage in the future if it is needed due to problems with PCIP.  

Medigal

peggy_j

medigal, FWIW, California has a PCIP plan and something else they call MRMIP (the link above is to a table that compares the two). To be honest, all this stuff makes my head spin and I'm grateful I don't need to understand this (we have good insurance and hope to keep it). But I wanted to post this as an FYI in case anyone in CA could use the info. From that link above, it says. (more info on the website)

 

The California Major Risk Medical Insurance Program (MRMIP) is a separate state program also run by MRMIB for medically uninsurables with different eligibility rules, annual deductibles, annual/lifetime cap, and monthly premium costs compared to the PCIP. 

 

I share your frustration about the PCIP 6-month issue. I hate policies with those built-in gotchas.