health insurance benefits? (Denver, Grand Junction, Estes Park: apartment, university, deductible)

[stormbird]

Hi;

I will be in Estes Park next week for two job interviews and to look for an apartment. I am in the food service business and have interviews lined up with two restaurants. What kind of health insurance benefits are considered standard packages offered by employers in Colorado?

I was diagnosed with Lymphoma 9 years ago and I am now in remission. It is imperative for me to have good health insurance. Pennsylvania has its ups and downs with health care and I have always heard it said that we have some of the worst health insurance policies around. Since I have never lived anywhere else, I have nothing to compare it to.

Can anyone offer any advice or insights about this?

Many thanks!

[BusySocialWorker]

You will find that the coverage will vary from excellent to sub standard depending on your employer and who they contract with to provide coverage for their emploees.

Not only will it depend upon your coverage provider, (Kaiser, United Heath, etc) but also which plan your employer elects to offer their employees and what percentage of actual costs of the plan they will cover and deductible / copay amounts.

Basicly I don't think there is a standard answer - it will grealy depend on the emoployers, so ask lots of questions.

[stormbird]

Thanks! I guess my next question is (and please forgive me if it is stupid) do all employers offer health insurance of some type? Since I never lived outside our state, I am not sure what or how other states compare with health care. I do know that Pennsylvania has one of the highest malpratice claims/lawsuits issues which causes a lot of doctor's offices to shut down or go elsewhere. With that kind of track record, it raises the doctor's/hospital's liabilities which in turn raises our health care costs and increases a lot of red tape....

My oncologist is excited about my move and will be referring me to the University of Colorado, which he said has some of the best doctors and health care around. Turns out he himself is a big Colorado fan!

[synchro]

Health insurance is not common, unless you work for a large employer. Even if your new employer offers insurance, it would probably not cover a pre existing
condition. Look into taking over the premiums and continuing with the coverage that you now have.

[lacesout]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but HIPAA requires Group insurance to cover pre-existing conditions so long as prospective member has a certificate of continuing coverage that is still in effect - they are in effect for 62 days after your current coverage terminates, I believe. It is the Health insurance Portability act. You can look it up on the internet.

However, if you needed to apply for an individual policy, you would probably be turned down .. but you would have Cover Colorado to fall back on. CC is Colorado's risk pool. The coverage options are decribed in detail on their webpage.

Hope this helps ...

Lacesout in Grand Junction, CO

[stormbird]

Thanks guys. Yeah laces out, you are correct. I have to always have proof of prior coverage to be accepted by a new policy. That is the certificate of coverage which you mentioned. I did check out Cover Colorado.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that any new potential employer does have a good policy.

In 5 days I will be there! Can't wait to breathe in that beautiful fresh clean air again!!!

http://public.fotki.com/stormbird/estes-park-colorado/

[High Altitude]

When we first moved here from CA my wife was offered a job in Denver with relocation. As soon as she started to work the first thing to hit us was how awful the insurance coverage was. Wasn't even close to what we had in CA. It really was terrible coverage and this is from a major company in Denver. After one year my wife got another job with much better insurance coverage. She wanted to leave earlier but she had to stay at least one year or else we would of had to pay back the relocation costs.

Our mistake was not finding out the exact coverage offered before taking the job etc...