Health Care Stories: Searching for Coverage

Private insurance companies have used the phrase “pre-existing condition” to exclude individuals who are likely to use the coverage they pay for and deny insurance to Americans on the basis of lost profits.  At 60 years of age, Louis should have coverage with the quality of private-sector care at a cost that’s affordable, and he shouldn’t have to wait five years until he’s 65 and can qualify for Medicare.  Supporting a public health insurance option that Americans can afford with the care they need is the only way to ensure competitive coverage and make private providers honest.   

“I have been positive since 1991.  Lost my job in 2007 and continued to have healthcare coverage under COBRA [and] when COBRA ran out, I tried to get a continuation of the same health care coverage as a private policy. [That] was not available, so the agent came up with another policy that I could have.  However, the cost of the plan was $1,200 per month due to pre-existing conditions.  These conditions included past pneumonia, high blood pressure, and HIV.  I was unable to afford the cost so I went [one] year without coverage and with no doctor’s appoints and no medicine.  Finally, I qualified for the Ryan White ADAP coverage and for the past year have been getting coverage through that program for [doctors] visits and medication.  Unfortunately, comparing the quality of care that I am now receiving to the coverage that I received in a private insurance setting, my current coverage is very poor...My health has been good for the past 10 years, but that is because I am very proactive in my medications (when I could get them).  But my concerns is that I am now 60 years old and other conditions may start to come up, and I still have no general health coverage.”

Louis, FL

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*Please note that actual names have been changed to protect individual's confidentiality.  Media interested in interviewing HIV-positive people about health-coverage issues should contact AFC Communications Director Johnathon Briggs at jbriggs@aidschicago or 312-334-0922.