From: fyl@ssc.wa.com (Phil Hughes)
Newsgroups: comp.org.acm,misc.jobs.contract
Subject: Re: ACM downgrades Catastrophe Medical Insurance
Date: 1 Sep 92 17:56:40 GMT
Organization: SSC, Inc.,  Seattle, WA
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

ed@titipu.meta.com (Edward Reid) writes:
: I just received the latest mailing about the ACM's Catastrophe Major Medical
: Insurance plan.  There are some major downgrades compared with the last time I
: checked. ...

The list of excluded conditions you listed reads, to me, more like the
list of exactly what I would expect them to cover.  It does basically
indicate that we need to do somethering serious about medical insurance
such as work for a national single-payer plan.

A Canadian-style plan, in spite of all the bad press it gets in the U.S.
is actually reasonable.  (For example, one of the big lies about the
Canadian health care system came out during the Tsongas campaign.  He said
that he would have died with his cancer because the type of treatment he
needed wasn't available in Canada.  As it turns out, the treatment he
received was developed in Canada by two Canadian doctors.)

Anyway, rather than go on about the Canadian plan, there is an article in
the July-August issue of Washington Green (which I wrote).  If you want a
copy you can send e-mail to green@fylz.com or mail to Washington Green,
8315 Lake City Way NE, Suite 207, Seattle, WA 98115.  If you live outside
Washington state they request a $1.00 donation as the advertisers are
Washington based.

The article was written after I attended a panel discussion on Health Care
in Canada where there were representatives from government, labor, and
doctors.  It was very informative.  Audio tapes of the discussion (90
minutes) are available from Washington Green for $ postpaid.  Profits for
the sale go to support Washington Green.
  (I don't remember when I last checked, so the changes may not be
: completely new.)  The changes make the plan much less useful to contractors. 
: The changes:
: 
:    1) Deductible is now $35,000.
:    2) Now available only if you have other medical insurance.
:    3) There is now a long list of conditions which can make you ineligible.
: 
: The deductible was $25,000 recently, and was $15,000 when I obtained the plan
: eight years ago.
: 
: The requirement for other insurance is new.
: 
: The list of conditions which make one ineligible is
: 
:    heart disease, kidney disease, lung disease, internal cancer, any immune
:    disorder, AIDS, ARC, diabetes, neurological disease, mental or nervous
:    dysfunction, alcohol or drug dependency
: 
: The changes cannot be blamed entirely on the ACM or the insurance
: administrators -- possibly not at all.  The ACM insurance program is caught in
: the same web of problems which is engulfing all medical insurance, and they
: furthermore have been forced to change carriers at least twice in eight years
: to keep this plan alive.  Nonetheless, these changes mean that a plan which was
: previously a useful cap-loss for the self-employed is now much less widely
: applicable.
: 
: Edward Reid  (8*}>
:   eel:   ed@titipu.meta.com  or  nosc.mil!titipu.meta.com!ed
:   snail: PO Box 378/Greensboro FL 32330
-- 
Phil Hughes, SSC, Inc. P.O. Box 55549, Seattle, WA 98155  (206)FOR-UNIX
     uunet!nwnexus!ssc!fyl or fyl@ssc.wa.com            (206)527-3385
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