Health insurance research shows coverage and being healthy are not the same

Health Insurance benefits

The Oregon Health Experiment has demonstrated that even people with a plan get sick and die. A study about the relationship between health insurance coverage and actually being healthy was conducted in Oregon and showed that having a plan doesn’t necessarily guarantee wellness. The project was lead by Amy Finkelstein, from MIT, and showed that the two are not the same. Called the Oregon Health Experiment, the research indicated that while some people who have coverage live long and healthy lives, others get sick and die. It also determined that…

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Pre existing condition health insurance reduces HIV drug wait list

health insurance drug Coverage

Plan cuts the waiting time significantly. Georgia’s wait list statistics in January was the longest in the country for individuals who needed government pre existing condition health insurance drug assistance for HIV. Back then, there were 1,348 people in the state who wanted to enroll in the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. Today, despite the fact that less than six months have passed, the wait list for ADAP has been reduced to about a third of its previous length, at 490 people (as of June 7, 2012). The program is designed…

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The future of health exchanges and high risk pools may hang on the Supreme Court’s ruling

Health Care Reform

News outlets have been reporting that if the health insurance law is overturned, massive programs it promised may end. Health insurance programs such as the state health exchanges and the pre-existing condition pools may find that their existence was short lived should the United States Supreme Court overturn the healthcare law that was put into place by the Obama administration in 2010. For example, the temporary PCIP government program may be the last of the protection for high risk individuals. That program was put into place in order to help…

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Affordable Care Act making progress in getting insurance coverage to people with pre-existing conditions

The Obama administration is claiming that the Affordable Care Act had reached a milestone last week. According to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, that nearly 50,000 people with pre-existing medical conditions have received health insurance through programs that were set up by the federal law. While this may be a significant accomplishment, many of the law’s critics claim that 50,000 is just a drop in the bucket, considering more than 25 million people with pre-existing conditions still do not have insurance of any kind.…

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Low enrollment in federal insurance program spurs a drop in premiums

Earlier this year, the federal government expanded the eligibility of a federal health insurance program to include those with preexisting conditions. The initiative was originally slated to take effect in 2014, along with the rest of the Affordable Care Act, but the Department of Health and Human Services enacted the new rules in an effort to ensure more people were receiving health insurance. The program, however, has been fraught with low enrollment, spurring the HHS to lower premiums by an average of 18% throughout the nation. The HHS hopes that…

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