Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/14583
SPECIAL REPORT: many owner-operators and small fleet owners, the private, individual policy market has been difficult be- cause of expensive policies and ex- clusion for pre-existing conditions. The risks of doing without health insurance are well-known. For own- er-operators, particularly, running a business without good health insur- ance coverage can be costly. Health issues and their associated costs are frequently cited among the biggest reasons for owner-operator business failure. On the slow road to health in- surance reform laid by the nation- al health-care reform bill passed ear- lier this year, the issue of pre-exist- ing conditions is a big one. In 2014, it will become illegal for insurance companies to deny anyone coverage based on a medical condition. Until then, one of the bill’s first action- able items attempts to address the long wait on preexisting conditions through institution of a nationwide 16 TRUCKERS NEWS AUGUST 2010 High-Risk Relief F or drivers whose companies don’t offer health insurance and established Preexisting Condition Insurance Plan (healthcare.gov) could be quite extensive. Nearly 20 percent of all owner- New national insurance pool begins process to help ‘uninsurable’ TODD DILLS high-risk pool (HRP) through which some uninsured people will be able to obtain benefits as early as this month. The bill required the pool to be “established” by June 21, and it laid out quite specif- ic directives as to who would be el- igible to partici- pate in it: a citi- zen or other legal resident who has been without coverage for at least six months and who has a pre-existing con- dition. Preexist- ing condition is defined broad- ly to refer to any condition used by an insur- ance company to deny health in- surance to an individual or family. Given the wide array of conditions insurance companies use as contract nonstarters, the reach of the newly I don’t know 4% SOURCE: ETRUCKER.COM POLL, 133 RESPONSES operators have no health insurance, according to data compiled by Truck- ers News’ sister magazine Overdrive. And among studies of the uninsured nationwide, rates as high as 15 per- cent have been cited for those who are deemed “uninsurable” due to a preexisting condition. Prior to the health-care reform Have you ever been turned down for health insurance due to a pre-existing condition? bill, 35 states already offered their own HRPs. A Government Account- ability Office report issued in June 2009 detailing the state pools revealed an av- erage individu- al premium of $485 monthly. Marked differ- ences between the state HRPs and the new temporary na- tional pool will be evident in the form of great- er access to fed- eral monies, as No 53% Yes 43% well as regulations pegging premi- um rates to comparable “standard rates,” i.e. what an individual of similar age and characteristics would pay for a comparable plan in the continued on page 75