 Nancy C. Inman |
Photographers health Does anyone know of a open end group insurance for Photographers?
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Jerry Frazier |
I don't know what you mean by "open end". But, most of the professional organizations offer group rate health insurance.
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Nancy C. Inman |
I would join as a part of a group of other Photographers. As such it would be opened ended. Meaning I would not be penalizes for existing illness.
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Mark Feldstein |
Nancy, I think what you're referring to is the "preexisting condition" rule that most insurance companies have in place. It's pretty rare these days to find a group plan that won't refuse to cover a preexisting condition for a period of say 90 days to up to 6 months, depending on the policy. Afterall, insurance companies are in business to take money but not to pay it out. What you could do, as strange as this may sound, is join an organization called Japanese American Citizens League. Joining makes you automatically eligible to apply for coverage under their Blue Shield insurance plan which is pretty good actually and has a number of different plans available for JACL members. As I recall they're in every state, you don't need to be Japanese to join, and if you want their address in California, drop me an e-mail. Also, some associations offer as Jerry said, but you need to be a good consumer about them and check them out before signing up. And, from what I understand these days, insurance companies are subscribing to the Medical Information Bureau in Mass., that exchanges info on patients who have either been turned down for insurance or have high risk conditions. This is what the HIPA law allowed them to do in terms of exchanging info electronically regarding patient conditions. It had nothing to do with privacy laws that every state had in place before HIPA. Nice huh? Lastly check out membership in ASMP.org. We used to have pretty good group insurance AND equipment coverage and business insurance through them. But when I went to JACL I stopped paying attention to that most of that stuff over there. Take it light.
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Mark Feldstein |
BTW, I forgot to mention that there are some situations that an insurance company can't deny coverage for either a group or individual policy under HIPA. For example, if someone has had coverage with a different carrier within X number of months prior to applying for a new carrier, they may have to cover you for everything and the preexisting exclusions may not apply. \ You can get that kind of information directly from the insurance co. sales reps, their underwriters OR sometimes from someone very knowledgeable in insurance matters at the association you're applying to but I'd get it directly from the insurance co. before you should actually rely on what you're being told. Right Jer? Jerry?
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Nancy C. Inman |
Thanks bunch for the time you spent answering me. Nancy
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