wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

there are some decent options for health insurance. if your self employed, young and healthy an HSA may be right for you. it starts at under 150 per month. Healthy NY is just about the same. plenty of info at www.nyhealthinsurer.com.

if your not self employed you can join an association and get an individual health insurance starting at 295 per month. www.nychealthplan.com

I appreciated this article and the comments that followed. It's always interesting to see what info is available.

Amen!

Your guest mentions that Daschle says that segments of the public "wouldn't accept" a single payer plan.

When will Democrats and liberals grow backbones???

Who would have said that the public "WOULD accept" the US committing torture, or being wire tapped, or any of the other extreme (in the wrong direction) actions of the Bush administration?

People WILL GLADLY embrace universal single-payer healthcare when there is leadership bold enough to proclaim that it is what decency and good economics requires!

(Can I get an amen?)

Two things: first the NY State discounted Cobra coverage for Entertainers has strict yearly income limits. I applied once at the same time when I had a good paying short term job which was multiplied out as if I made $50,000 per year, when I really make much less. But I was denied the coverage discount based on that false gross income.

Second, the woman who needs dental assistance should check at Columbia University at the dental school there.

Many freelancers groups offer their members health insurance. I'm on the board of the Editorial Freelancers Association (full disclosure), & we've been gathering info on health insurance options offered by other groups in preparation for (we hope) expanding our own. Most of these organizations are for people in specific fields, like the Graphic Artists Guild, the American Society of Media Photographers, or the National Writers Union. More generally, there's the National Association for the Self-Employed. If you're over 50, you're eligible for AARP's coverage.

Georgetown U. has a Health Policy Institute, whose website (healthinsuranceinfo.net) has PDFs on managing medical bills, incl. a worksheet for comparing available plans (link on right side of home page). Ironically, they themselves have lost funding for keeping their state-by-state consumer guides online & are looking for suggestions to replace it.

Finally, I agree w/Janet from Harlem. I have Atlantis Health Plan (available in the 5 boroughs) through EFA & have been very satisfied w/it. My premium is going up only 4% next year; other plans have announced increases of 17% & 28%!

I'm one of the ticked off Freelancers Union members who does not want to be insured by the new Freelancers Insurance company, but since so little notice was given to us I will have no choice but to switch my coverage to them for a month while I get things set up through a new insurer.

I am currently working with NASRO http://www.nasro-co-op.com/health/directory.shtml to get the best bang for my buck, which will likely be one of the no-deductible Oxford plans. Health insurance is expensive enough, but switching insurance brings additional expenses as well - since you basically need to come up with a 2nd insurance premium payment for the month you're switching (paying for the current month and then pre-paying for the new coverage). Some of us - especially in the month of December - just don't have an extra $500 to spare, along with the medical expenses we're already incurring (i am having surgery on Dec 18th, pushed up from January since I could not afford to have it in January under the new FIC insurance because of the much higher deductibles and coinsurance requirements).

I have HHC options through the Woodhull hospital clinic, good sliding scale option, which I believe is available throughout the city hospital network. I pay $15 per visit, and $2 to fill prescriptions...I also only earn about $15,000 a year.
Ryan Nena in the LES has a sliding scale dental clinic.

I had hoped the guest would mention the Healthy NY program, b/c it has no income requirement. I had Healthy NY briefly this summer while unemployed.
To answer a comment, if I remember correctly - I'm not sure I do - deductibles were similar to a HMO/PPO. I also can't speak about the liability cap. But I CAN say that co-pays were in fact similar to an HMO: about $20 to see most doctors. I think specialists might be a bit higher.
There were restrictions, though. Even though there were a multitude of health care companies to choose from, their Healthy NY networks were smaller than their normal ones. And yes, they were more restrictive on prescriptions - like birth control (how predictable, I have to say - I'd love to know if they restricted Viagra...).
All in all, it worked well for me. As an individual, I paid about $260/mth _with_ prescriptions through HealthyNY, compared to about twice that much through Cobra. No thanks, Cobra. Thank you very much, New York.

Ruth can go to NYU school of dentistry. It's located across from Bellevue Hospital in the lower 20's and 1st ave.

I caught the tail end of your piece on the individual health insurance market. I am the President of the New York Metro Association of Health Underwriters (industry organization of health insurance proofessionals) and a health insurance broker with Middlegate in the city. One area we are looking into is for the State to provide a mandate-free plan to make insurance more affordable. As you may know, the plans being offered by the insurance companies are loaded with state mandates (I believe around 60). The feedback we are getting is that Albany would not go for such a plan. It is intresting to note that Healthy New York is not obligated to cover all the state mandates. Florida is in the process of implementing this type of plan. Why not give the consumer the choice??

I am a photographer who is switching away from The Freelancers Union's healthcare. They have changed all their policies. They know have huge deductibles and both annual and life time maximum of benefits. Not sure what a life time maximum is but it can't be good. The low premium plans are fine if you are healthy and just go to the doctor routinely. But if something terrible and unexpected does happen, 20% of the medical bills per person would brake me. I am now having to pay $1,373 a month for a family plan (My wife, daughter and myself). It is still a hard number to look at!

Re: Entertainment-biz COBRA subsidy, it seems it may only apply to SAG and other union members. But I'd love to know if there are loopholes or if, in fact, other folks in the entertainment biz are eligible.

http://www.iatselocalone.org/news/press21.html

how can an 81% increase be justified? Seems to me in these times of tightening belts a great deal could be done to reduce unnecesary use of health services, if you can over hall GM why not make Medicade more efficient. Abuse in this program is rampent.and the private insurance business.

If medicare for senior citizens is $96.95 a month we must learn to live more healthy lives....or pay the price. Make private insurance compete.

again; i think there should be no war and no insurance for congress or the president until every last citizen is covered, equally. otherwise there can be no claim that this is in any way a free and equal society, it is a society in which money trumps even the health of children.

it is ironic to me that the so called religious right would embrace such inhumane convictions. what was that quote about a rich man and the eye of a needle? very ironic i think.

Stay away from Direct Med told bet and switch. They told me it is heath insurances and when I got it say on in "not insurances". What it terned out to be is a discount card for med and Dr.'s. I got jacked by them and I cant find a DR that takes it.

I cant find any thing under $400 a mouth.

For those who are interested in options other than Freelancers Union, my other freelancer friends and I are considering health insurance plans from mediabistro and Fractured Atlas.

Most HSA plans cover preventative care. Its true they do not cover standard care until the deductible has been met, but it is misleading to say they cover nothing until the deductible. Most cover annual physicals and gynecological visits.

Can anyone tell me what a typical deductible (if any) there is for Healthy New York? Is there a liability cap such as $250,000? What about co-pays? Any restrictions on which doctors you see? What about prescriptions?

would you please give a little more detail about health insurance assistance for those in the entertainment industry?
thank you

HSAs don't work in NY. The private health insurers' deductible are o-average $1,000, but the requirement for an HSA is for the deductible is greater than that. HSAs are a federal idea & the deductible increases $50 per year, up to aboutr $1,100 now, BUT THERE ARE NO INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURERS whose insurance deductible qualifies.

Thanks, Matt! Good link.

For Healthy NY, a couple can't make more than $30K jointly per year.

I have an LLC and am my only employee. I found Atlantis Health plans, which is NY-based, founded by Dr's. I have been incredibly happy with it. $350 per month; includes prescriptions, no referrels, alternative medicine and the BEST is they have clinics (I think in every borough, so if you need to see someone fast, you can go in instead of waiting to see your primary care doctor. They are open weekends too.

Beware total coverage limits. I was shocked to learn that my Cobra extension was limited to a lifetime maximum payout of $250,000. And I pay $300 a month for this.

Health Care for All is one of the lead organizations advocating for single payer health care, which most listeners here (like Robert) support.

Could you elaborate on that?

I have individual health insurance through Healthy New York for $277.63 per month. Call (866) healthy ny.

If your household makes $75,000 a year

How do you go about planning to have a child with no health insurance or only catastrophic insurance.

Is it possible?

Beware the Freelances Union healthcare plans.

http://gawker.com/5094251/freelancers-freaking-out-about-their-union-health-plan

I found Combined Life Company's accident and sickness policies. Does the guest know anything about those plans? I suscribe, but haven't had to use them.

Mary, I do agree with you on that point. This year I may be enrolling for a plan that is essentially a fancy-pants catastrophic plan. At this point it's better than nothing.

Hello Health is at least trying something new:
https://www.hellohealth.com/

When I was studying for the bar exam in Maryland (graduated from school so not on parent/school plan, and not yet working), I was able to purchase a cheap, short term health insurance policy. Limited covereage, but hopefully enough to cover me if a big accident happened. I could not find such a policy that will cover people in New York. Why is that?

Health savings accounts usually go with a catastrophic plan. You had better not be sick.

Ask your guest about the fact that you cannot buy a stand-alone hospitalization policy in NJ.

And that is my arguments against those who complain about paying higher taxes for "social" govt. run healthcare like one gets in Canada and Europe. You will pay $12,000 to $24K/annum for the private police that I just bet will go up if you actually get sick and use it. However, you would not pay anywhere near that amount in taxes for totally or almost totally free heatlth insurance! Why does no one bring up these comparisons. And with the private one you can bet there are deductible, meds fees and co-pays. Hul-lo-o!!

Every child under the age of 18 should be covered in the "richest" country in the world.
I propose that federal government offer a tax rebate to companies that modify the health plans to allow employees covered to add as a dependent a "ward" non-related child selected from health and human services so that we all can assist in securing health for our children.

New York State has a program called (I think) Healthy New York, which is subsidized by the insurance industry premiums.

Does Elizabeth Benjamin know anything about that?

These freelancers insurances she just mentioned are for freelancers in certain industries I believe.

Brian Lehrer,

I find it very interesting that the way income guidelines are structured so that if a person has 2 people in their household and they get unemployment which is no more than $405 per week, they make too much to get Medicaid but don't have enough income to pay these $600 premium for Healthy NY for a couple.

Anyone have more info about that entertainment biz COBRA subsidy?

The guest should know the new Freelancers Union plans in NY are not as good as previous year's plans. There was an article about dissatisfaction with it in this week's Times.

The Freelancers Union insurance initially requires jumping through hoops and slaying dragons, but they definitely offer a good selection of plans.

did she say $1,200 a year? I think a month