STEP FORWARD - Shriver Center

By Margaret Stapleton, Senior Attorney

Lots of things about health insurance are ironic. Example: Getting health care (which prevents more serious trouble or restores health) can trigger difficulties staying insured due to premium adjustments upward and preexisting-condition exclusions if the patient needs to change insurance plans. 

But the biggest irony is that, in some states, it’s okay for insurers to look at information of questionable relevance (past medical treatment), but now nowhere in the United States is it okay to look at information of quite certain relevance (genetic test results).  (more…)

By John Bouman, President

Nine years ago, Chicagoan Mark Emerson left his job with a large company that offered group health coverage to pursue the American dream and start his own business. He did not know that this would begin his ordeal of what he now calls “being charged back into the stone age” as a customer of the private health insurance market. Mark and his wife pay more in health care costs than they do on their mortgage payments and real estate taxes. Ironically, Mark and his wife are healthy people, but their health insurance costs still have escalated. Though he has reached the point where he can no longer afford his premiums, Mark is unwilling to drop coverage and face the potential nightmare of going without insurance. He feels stuck, and help is nowhere to be found. (more…)

By Andrea Kovach, Staff Attorney

It’s not news that major medical emergencies or the treatment of chronic illnesses often cripple a family’s financial stability. What’s now becoming clear is the flip side of that story-how families suffering from financial debt often experience problems that affect their health and productivity. (more…)