Hi all,

Not new to the board but pop in here and there. 26 year old male, episodic for about 8 years.

Does anyone have any experience with CH and new health insurance policies?

While talking to the insurance provider during health insurance enrollment with my  new job I told him about my CH. He said he would have to check with the underwriting department because he knows that certain "vascular headaches" are not covered and I could be denied insurance coverage.

Terrific.

Now I'm wondering if I should've just kept my mouth shut. Or I don't know if Big Brother would've been able to find this about me and I would've been denied anyway. I'm not too hopeful considering the guarantee that this condition has no clear in end in sight. And I can't imagine big business wanting to pay for little ol' me. I've fought cycles before without insurance or with idiot doctors who thought it was something else, so I suppose I can get through another (which usually start to happen around this time.)

Anyone else have any experience, positive or negative, with insurance policies and CH?

The contract allows cancellation of coverage for misinformation.

Eventually, Americans will get their noses out of the sand and vote for single payer insurance as in Gemany, France, etc.

How can it make sense for us to pay twice as much for health care than European countries; to rank #37 in the world on overall quality of health care; to rank last in in-patient care (comparing other industrial countries.

I just needed $85,000 in radiation surgery--something which I should never been able to obtain had the problem surfaced had I needed to purchase new coverage. Medicare is keeping me alive.

(Sorry, you didn't ask for the rant!)

  My insurance company refused me an MRI and was dictating the dosage of my meds ( Doc prescribed med "as needed" ins. co. would only refill once a month) .... For a moment there I thought my doctor was the doctor.
   Fortunately, my employer changed insurance co. I have not had any trouble with my meds with the new company. I haven't even tried to get my MRI.

I'm curious, to all of you not in the US. How does your health insurance work and is it any good.

Jim

Hi - Kit here, Chris & I are in Quebec, so we have "free" health care. All doctor's visits are covered (fantastic) as are most tests, we don't need approval from insurance. That being said, we are seriously short of doctor's & nurses, so waiting times to get appointments & tests can be incredibly long. We were extremely lucky that Chris got an appointment with a neuro within 2 weeks of going to the clinic. CT scan took 2 weeks also. Neuro has put his name in for an MRI but the waiting list for that s minimum 6 months! Meds are covered either under personal insurance or under the provincial drug insurance if you aren't covered otherwise. 6 x 5mg doses of Zomig is $108 plus tax before insurance, ours covers 80%. I am sure it's way worse for our American neighbours, especially if your insurance dictates what you can and cannot get, yikes!

Too late, but you should have remained silent about the CH.  I'm covered fairly decently with the O2 at no cost, meds, imitrex and now zomig, mri, doctor.  Your condition might now be considered pre existing for some period of time, plus the insurance might not cover you at all eliminating the employment opportunity.

Best of luck,

John