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Health insurance hard to find for over-50 crowd |
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High-risk pools
In states that offer them, the only possibility for an over-50 applicant might be the high-risk pool. This approach spreads the burden of insuring older people and people with health problems among all the insurance companies doing business in the state.
Half of the nation's states offer risk pools, including: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida (closed to new applicants), Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Most pools have waiting periods for coverage of pre-existing conditions; however, if you are HIPAA-eligible, even the high-risk pool insurer can't mandate a waiting period.
Don't consider this insurance a godsend. Risk-pool insurance is generally much pricier than regular individual or small-business group insurance. Each state caps the cost to some extent, but these caps can be as much as 200 percent of the normal premium -- sometimes more. In Indiana, for instance, the typical cost of an individual policy for someone in the risk pool is more than $13,000 per year.
Nevertheless, don't dismiss a high-risk pool out of hand. If your income is low, there could be some payment assistance available. Some pools are more favorable toward customers than others. Maryland's, for instance, was designed by insurance experts at Georgetown University and is priced at less than $3,000 per year for an individual and is comprehensive.
Other options
Finally, some states have varying and often unattractive programs to accommodate the medically uninsurable. Some of these plans are only available at certain times of the year. Some states offer only mini-med policies, capping the total payout to a few thousand dollars annually.
These states or jurisdictions are: California, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
None of these solutions works for you? Think about getting a job. Thirteen percent of large and medium-size firms offer health benefits for part-time (fewer than 20 hours) workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Plus, once the insurance is in force, you'll be eligible for COBRA -- and that may get you through to Medicare.
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