Health care question

[RDANGELO]

I was recently laid off from my job that provided health care for me and my wife. My wife is a breast cancer patient who had the operation about six years ago, and has been cancer free since. If i find another job that provides health care, what is the likelihood that they will not cover her? From what I understand, the preexisting condition reasoning is eliminated in 2014. Does that cover just employees or also spouses. I would greatly appreciate information from anyone who has knowledge in this area.

[flamingdem]

1. Does your state have Medicare?

Some states are transitioning to Obamacare by offering adults medicare or a version of it ahead of time. Call and see. California has it for example. She will be okay starting in 2014 for a regular health insurance company - they cannot consider preexisting at that point .. and maybe already in some states

[alc]

2. everyone is covered but not by employer

From the rules issued a few weeks ago

The employer must offer coverage to children of an employee who are under 26 years of age, but they do not have to make it “affordable.” And they do not have to offer any coverage for the employee’s spouse.

That's from wizbangblog which I've never heard of but was the first google result. I says what lots of sites said 2 weeks ago when the official ruling from the IRS came out. (the IRS manages the penalties/taxes, so they determined what employers must do to avoid penalty)

If your employer doesn't cover spouses, she will be able to go to your state exchange. They won't be able to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, but their definition of "affordable" may not be the same as yours - they can charge higher premiums and we don't know exactly where regulators and insurers will settle on that premium. Given that the IRS recently decided to let employers drop spouses in order to not lose support of employers, my guess is that regulators will allow pre-existing condition premiums to go way up to not lose support of insurers.

Patients aren't lobbying like everyone else, so they will get the raw end over and over. Patients claimed victory and moved on when it passed (with urging from the democrats) but all the other parties are making sure they come out as well as possible. If patients don't go back to complaining loud very soon we'll all be worse off than before (yes, even most of the 30 million previously uninsured). We need to stop over-hyping the benefits we've seen so far and start demanding honest answers about what's coming and fixes.