If You Have A Preexisting Condition, Choose COBRA or ObamaCare Over Your Mortgage

It used to be that when people lost their jobs, there was only one way to keep insurance coverage, and that was COBRA. The only problem is that when you lose your job, you have to pick and choose what bills to pay and COBRA is crazy expensive. Most people had to go bare. If they had preexisting conditions, it was literally a matter of life and death because they would never get insurance again.

Then came the Affordable Care Act, which is the same as ObamaCare if you haven't already figured that out. The ACA allowed people who lost their jobs to get alternative insurance that was much cheaper than COBRA. Plus, it both banned insurance companies from denying coverage due to preexisting conditions and also from charging more to those with preexisting conditions. So, yes, insurance rates went up for those who were healthy, but it saved billions in government-subsidized healthcare. The reason being that anyone who was uninsured had to go to publicly funded hospitals for all their healthcare needs.

Since the election, I've been warning people who lose their jobs to make sure they elect either ACA or COBRA, and under no circumstances to lose coverage if they have a preexisting condition because I thought preexisting condition coverage would be lost when Trump and the Republicans started to gut the ACA.

I've been accused of being an alarmist, but that's exactly what the latest proposal would do. While it would still prohibit insurers from denying health insurance to those with preexisting conditions, it allows them to raise premiums. A recent study made these findings:

Based on our analysis, we estimate that individuals with even relatively mild pre-existing conditions would pay thousands of dollars above standard rates to obtain coverage. For example, because an individual with asthma costs an issuer 106 percent more than a healthy 40-year-old, she would face a premium surcharge of $4,340. The surcharge for diabetes would be $5,600 per year. Coverage could become prohibitively expensive for those in dire need of care: Insurers would charge about $17,320 more in premiums for pregnancy, $26,580 more for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune disorders, and $142,650 more for patients with metastatic cancer.

Because there are few things that can bankrupt you as quickly as medical bills, if you lose your job and have to choose between paying your mortgage and paying for insurance, the wise decision might just be to pay for insurance. While your mortgage company may work with you to allow you time to catch up, losing your coverage if the Republicans manage to repeal preexisting condition coverage may literally kill you.

If you care about this, call your Congress member and Senator now and tell them to stop this folly before they kill a bunch of people.