Medical Insurance

I've read an article that stated that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to make it mandatory that all people in CA have health insurance. If you cannot get the insurance from your employer then the state would offer insurance coverage. This is a problem on so many levels. We've had a recent problem that just proves this won't work.

We were unable to get private insurance for our daughter because of her genetic disorder. We had the option of taking the state Healthy Families coverage or going without coverage. We swallowed our pride and took the state coverage. The plan is administered by Blue Cross. As of October of this year we were told that UCLA, where her specialist is located, will no longer accept the insurance. Since then I've found out that the medical group in Fresno and San Diego has terminated their contracts. I was told that it looks like Stanford and San Francisco will also be going this route. The medical groups want more money and the plan administrator cannot authorize more since the state tells them how much they can pay. What this means is that we cannot get an authorization to continue seeing the specialist our daughter goes to. The plan administer has referred our case to another state program who can authorize different doctors for special cases. When I talked to them, the names they gave us were for doctors that I was told had retired! They can refer her to one hospital in Los Angeles county but having dealt with them in the past it is the last place I would feel comfortable taking her. Since all the patients from the surrounding areas will also be switched to that particular hospital I cannot even imagine what the wait for an appointment will be since it was 4-6 months before this happened. How can you require people to have insurance that no medical group will take?

I have no idea what we are going to do at this point. I have messages in to Blue Cross about an appointment we have scheduled next week. At this point I'm hoping to get them to cover this one appointment so I have time for the other state program to go into effect and find a doctor who will take it.