Who Will Pay When You Have Pre-existing Conditions

Over the Memorial Day weekend in 1987 I moved to Florida in with my boyfriend and our son. Right away I started looking for an office job. Only three weeks after moving here, I got a job with a well-known company that wasn't too far from my new apartment. As with any new job, I had to choose health insurance coverage, if I wanted it. There were two plans to choose from. One plan was similar to the insurance coverage at my previous job up north where I could use my current doctor and go to any hospital. The other plan was new to me; it was an HMO. I asked the HR representative what an HMO was and what were the benefits of choosing that plan over the other. She told me the plans had similar coverage and the cost of the package I would need for myself and child basically was the same amount. The only difference was that I would need to use their doctors, whom I could choose from a list, and use only certain hospitals in my area. I looked at the list of doctors and found several close to my home and there were two hospitals nearby as well. Since I was new to the area and didn't already have a doctor for myself or my child, I figured choosing doctors from this list would save me time and grief later. So I chose the HMO plan for health insurance coverage. Little did I know at that time how much grief I would save by choosing the HMO plan. I started getting sick and my clothes werent fitting me right. I thought that I was putting on weight because I was eating lunch a couple of times a week in the company cafeteria. Some things happened and other things didnt, and I suspected I might be pregnant. I took a pregnancy test, and it came out positive. My primary care doctor referred me to an OB/GYN from the HMO plan. It turned out I was about seven weeks pregnant, which I thought would be a big problem. I had only been working at my new job for about three weeks, so my pregnancy was a pre-existing condition. None of the health insurance plans I ever had covered pre-existing conditions. Someone at work suggested I talk to someone in HR to find out if my pregnancy would be covered under my new health insurance plan. I really expected the worse, and I couldnt imagine how my boyfriend and I would be able to pay for doctor visits and expensive hospital bills for the delivery. The lady in HR asked me which insurance I chose, and I told her the HMO. She told me I was in luck. She said the HMO didnt exclude pre-existing conditions in their coverage, but the other insurance the company offered did. I was surprised to find out I didnt have to pay a co-payment for my pre-natal visits. There wasnt a co-pay at the hospital either when I went to deliver the baby. The HMO doctors and the hospital staff helped to make my pregnancy and delivery very pleasant. From that point on, any time I got a new job, if I had a choice of insurance plans, I chose the HMO. When you buy <a href="http://www.gohealthinsurance.com/">health insurance</a>you want to make sure that you are getting the benefits that you need. Before you buy you will want to get tons of <a href="http://www.gohealthinsurance.com/quote.jsp">health insurance quotes</a> so that you get the greatest price.

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