I’m not sure that it matters when you make an application in a state that guarantees that everyone who applies will be accepted. I don’t know if the MIB is alerted when you are accepted for insurance, but I know that the problems can occur when you are rejected.

Tufts is an inner city hospital that handles the toughest, sickest cases. Over the last five years, it has lost $25 million on its Blue Cross Blue Shield business. It is just struggling to survive. Meanwhile BCBSMA made $209 million in net income in 2007 (the last year we have numbers for) on $6.7 billion in premiums. That same year they paid their President and CEO $3.6 million in total compensation. The prior year (2006) BCBSMA chairman and CEO William Van Faasen was paid more than $16 million as part of his overall retirement package in 2006. So they don’t mind compensating their own executives richly, just not the docs who work at smaller, inner city hospitals like Tufts!

Our system is seriously broken when health insurance companies and their executives get rich while hospitals go broke trying to meet the healthcare needs of the underserved populations within our cities.

For reference, the battle has been covered in The Boston Globe.

I apologize if somehow it came across that New York has attractive rates for everyone. Since the rate is the same regardless of health, a person with a significant medical condition who may pay $500 a month in New York might find that they can get a much more limited policy somewhere else (like North Carolina) for $2,500. From this perspective it is less. For a healthy, young person the rate might be more like $150 in North Carolina and the same $500 in New York. I hope that this clarifies.

depending on the state, a 12 year old injury might never come up as a factor. You may be eligible for a guaranteed issue health insurance policy from your school. You may also be able to get treatment from a medical school at a reduced rate.

Insurers generally won’t cover an issue in most states if you already have a medical need and then apply for insurance. If your injury was still dormant and you had no problems, applied for and were accepted for health insurance, and then had the problem a year or two down the road, then there might not be any issue about pre-existing. It sounds like you have an immediate medical need and the insurers have picked up on that, won’t cover that condition, but may cover other things that may happen from here on out.