Health insurance and coverage in the US for T1D

@anon92548039, I understand. Keep expectations low and assume the worst, then you won’t be shocked by anything. Here is a good book on the topic: Books: Book Reviews, Book News, and Author Interviews : NPR
Click where the red box is, after following the link, in order to listed to the audio interview, which sums up the book.

Get travel medical insurance before you leave to cover you for the months before you’ll have employer based cover.

If you don’t have a job lined up, how would you get a visa and why think you’re allowed to get a government job in the US. Most gov’t positions require you be a citizen or have a green card (legal residency). Not sure your plan will work.

Unless you’re a legal resident or citizen of the US you can’t get insurance through the ACA exchanges. You likely can’t get private insurance that would cover T1D. If you do, it will cost a small fortune.

Thanks for your concern, I’m an American citizen.

Only when you’re rich, freedom isn’t expensive…and that’s true wherever you live… :exploding_head:

Insurers are no longer allowed to wait one year before providing coverage for pre-existing condition, but that may change. Things are in limbo. If you are coming with any sort of wealth, exercise caution. You are gonna need to be covered by a workplace policy right away. If that falls through, there will be big trouble.If you are coming flat broke, then you may be at less risk. However, you will need to establish residency in a state before you have access to gov care and that might take 6 months. Do you know which state you plan to move to? That makes a big difference.

Just as a note. If you get a job with a good policy and then something with the job falls through, purchase the policy out of pocket. They can’t take it away as long as you keep paying the bill and use COBRA. That could save you from the ACA exchange. You don’t want to end up there as a T1D.

Yeah, it’s sad to see how someone like Donald Trump and all the republican accomplices are throwing a bomb into the ACA marketplaces.
I cried out of joy when Barack Obama signed the ACA into law…
…and now…I don’t know anymore…I have no hope for the United States anymore. Secession from the United States by liberal states that are fed up with all the psychopathic tactics that the republicans use to get their way, is the only solution I can see to things getting better in the long run…
Sorry for all my fellow Americans who don’t have dual-citizenship like I do.
I’m working on a medical refugee-dating-app, so American people with pre-existing conditions can find love and “universal” healthcare, if they want to…

And to answer your question: it’ll take me at least 18 months to finish my master in Epidemiology, so I won’t be moving sometime soon.

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I see, well let us investigate further when you have more details.

ACA didn’t do anything in my state except increase premiums from $350 to $450 per month. But, the Feds are subsidizing that a bit this year (for privately purchased policy holders). So, it is somewhat unchanged. In the future, though, low deductible plans will likely be eliminated. I highly advise you to steer clear of ACA.

You will always get a better plan if you work for the state or the feds, in general. Private company plans feel ‘sketchy’ to me, as a type 1.

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The other half of your country didn’t.

You could achieve the same if you didn’t try to do everything at the federal level. Let blue states have their nationalized healthcare and red states their free market healthcare.

Your solution sounds simple, but unfortunately isn’t as simple: Why single payer died in Vermont - POLITICO

I was just about to delete my post because I got carried away by seeing the smirk on Donald Trumps face when he was signing his executive orders to undermine the federal health care marketplaces.

When I was young I never suspected that political decisions that influence my life because I have to live with T1D would be the restricting factor in my life. Sadly, this is also true when you live in the Netherlands, as you probably know, but they aren’t talked about at national political level, because every party points their finger at one of the other parties to offer a solution.

And the Dutch Diabetes Association is the worst patientadvocate I can think of.

I have yet to see any Republicans actually support free market healthcare. Just because you don’t have a government run “universal” healthcare system doesn’t mean it is free market. The system we have currently, or even before the ACA was faaarrrrr from free market.

As far as the ACA goes; I knew it was going to be trouble to begin with. It was an excellent opportunity for the insurance companies to manipulate things to get what they want. My premiums and copays went up and that was on a company provided plan, from a company that prides itself in its healthcare benefits. You can’t have a compromise with healthcare, either you go full government paid and controlled, or you go full free market with little to no government control. Anything in between is just a perfect environment for corporate greed and government corruption to work together. At least with a government run system the corporate greed and government corruption are felt less by the people who are sick.

Well, then let red states implement whatever non-universal health care they like. Just why would you want to let the federal government continue designing these monsters of health care systems?

I don’t want to argue for either system, but how do you feel government corruption less in a government-run system?

It won’t be any easier on the federal level.

How so? I think they’re doing fine.

I didn’t necessarily mean that there would be less corruption (though if you think about it, if insurers were not in the picture that would take out one source of corruption), just that sick people would probably feel less of the effects of it. Note probably, as that is always up in the air. But to further explain what I mean, if you are a sick person…say someone with T1D, you are always faced with huge bills, questionable insurance coverage, and a constant worry of what you will do if you lose your insurance for some reason. If you have universal heathcare, there are certainly times you will experience the corruption and cronyism, but you would most likely not face the same expenses and worry as one does under our current/past system(s). I mean there are definite issues with a government run system, but hearing from T1Ds in countries that have said systems, most seem to not experience the same stress as we do here.

Note that I am also not trying to vouch for either system, more so just vouching for systems that don’t rely on insurance companies as the primary payers.

I still don’t get how you would feel less government corruption if you take corporate corruption out of the equation.

Why is this a result of government corruption rather than corporate corruption?

The Dutch Diabetes Association represents people with diabetes in many deliberations with governmental organisations, but they lack activism to bring about change.
They should be much more vigorous in campaigning for the people with type 1 diabetes.

Do you have any concrete examples?

Corporate and government corruption go hand in hand, so they are both responsible. My point being if you have easily affordable healthcare that isn’t dependent on getting and keeping insurance, you won’t be so affected by the corruption like someone is in the system we have. That doesn’t mean the corruption isn’t there, or that you don’t know about it, or it has no affect at all, just people will likely care less.

I was a medical refugee from the United States to Canada because of my type 1 diabetes (plus a few other personal connections), and I can say I have always felt perfectly secure and worry-free with the Canadian universal public healthcare system. Since Canada is not a third world country, and there is little or no corruption in ordinary government departments, I don’t see why it would be likely to exist in the healthcare system.

The only thing approaching corruption I have ever seen in the Canadian system is that doctors sometimes rush their patients during appointments, since they can only charge a fixed fee per session, so the faster it is over the more money they can make. But it is fairly simple to switch doctors, so competition keeps them generally honest. The other thing that is suggestive of corruption is that leading politicians, such as Robert Bourassa of Quebec who went to Maryland to get treatment for skin cancer, and Danny Williams of Newfoundland, who went to the U.S. for heart surgery, prefer to buy into a foreign system than to accept the standard of care which they have determined, through their funding decisions, to be adequate for everyone else.

Insurance companies may no longer deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. If you work for the government, chances you will have Blue Cross Blue Shield for State or Federal employees. Call Blue Cross Blue Shield and find out what the out-of-pockets costs for diabetes supplies. I have heard about deductibles with other insurance companies being super high. I have Blue Cross Blue Shield State and Federal coverage. I have an insulin pump and all of the supplies with very little out of pocket expenses. The insurance will not coverage the continuous monitoring system supplies (the sensor), which I think is foolish. But no need for worries.