I have been making cobra insurance payments and only need the insurance until December, if I stop making payments and I don’t need anymedical coverage during that time, is that ok? In other words if I stop making the payments can I make up the back payments should I have medical bills come up?

This is a description of the Aetna Advantage PPO 1500 individual health insurance plan for Michigan. Jeff Pratt explains the coverage of this Aetna Individual Health Insurance plan for individuals.

More at therealnews.com Lobby group speaks against public health care at AHIP insurance forum

Today, the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing entitled “Terminations of Individual Health Policies by Insurance Companies.” The hearing examined the practice of “post-claims underwriting,” which occurs when insurance companies cancel individual health insurance policies after providers submit claims for medical services rendered. The Committee conducted an investigation into the practice of health insurance rescission, and the results were alarming. Over the past five years, almost 20000 individual insurance policyholders have had their policies rescinded by the three insurance companies who testified today: Assurant, UnitedHealth Group, and WellPoint.

if you’re hiv positive and are currently covered with an insurance policy, but will be changing jobs where group coverage is not an option, what are your options for health insurance? are hiv positive people stuck in their jobs for life just to keep insurance? from what i’ve found, public insurance benefits only apply when you’re dirt poor and have no home.

I’m thinking of starting my own business, or just going on sobatical. I need catastrophic coverage (emergency room visits) and a good prescription plan (to cover long-term meds) at a minimum. For the Rx plan, I’d like to avoid any pre-existing conditions exclusions since some of my meds are expensive. Ideally, I would like to have hmo/ppo coverage like I have now, but it would seem like that can’t happen. I’ve heard some stories about joining certain clubs to this end, but have no specific info.

Thanks in advance!

In 2006, Massachusetts passed health care reform that implemented a number of policies that are now being mirrored in the Obama health reform plan. The president has repeatedly claimed that his plan will lower health care costs but not decrease health care quality. This visualization looks at how the Massachusetts plan has panned out in terms of cost and wait times. Sources: Wait Times – Merrit Hawkins and Associates 2009 Survey of Physician Appointment Wait Times: www.merritthawkins.com Cost of Insurance Premiums – AHIP Center for Policy and Research Individual Health Insurance 2006-2007: A Comprehensive Survey of Premiums, Availability, and Benefits – www.ahipresearch.org

What are you doing to stem the rising costs of health care and insurance premiums? Michael Soman, MD: We’re implementing a new way of providing primary care in all 26 of our medical centers. We believe this approach will better serve our patients, bring our costs down, and help reduce premiums — even while improving quality Join the conversation www.ghc.org

Whats a good site for cheap health insurance quotes?