I will be starting Medical School this fall and I have recently been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I currently have health insurance through my job, but I will be needing to get a policy starting this August. Does anyone have any advice as to what carrier/plans to look into. As far as I know the school I am looking into going to does not offer any type of programs.
Getting insurance with Diabetes
- Thread starter pennylane
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pennylane said:
I am looking into this also. I know that if you are a member of SOMA, you can get health insurance through them, but I haven't specifically tried to find out what that includes, or how expensive it is. Good luck.
LADM= Late Autoimmune Diabetes Mellitus. Symptoms and treatment are the same as for type I, but are often mistaken for type II because of their age.jkhamlin said:Are you sure it's type 1?
Just making sure because it is far less common (not even mentioned in Principles of Internal Medicine).DORoe said:
To the OP:
I hope to be of some help, I used to be a licensed life/health insurance agent in Missouri. It is somewhat different from state to state, but the basics are about the same. Being under the care and direction of a physician is VERY important to the underwriting requirements. As you know, goup is the way to go for someone in your situation (have you checked out your COBRA options?). Unfortunately, that may not help. If you can convince underwriters at some company that your diabetes is under control with medical assistance, your weight is in a healthy range, and your other tests (such as CBC and biochemistry) come out normal then you may have a chance. Unfortunately you will be charged more. You might have luck with prepaid plans such as Blue Cross / Blue Shield. There is also "temporary health insurance" which is for people making a transition from one situation to another and has no real underwriting requirements (with a lot of exclusions, though). You should be able to find a broker specializing in health who can help you with this. I would recommend not going with any HMO coverage. This costs the most and doesn't cover what is important. Although many people hate this, go with as high a deductible as you can possibly stand. Also, since insulin is OTC by federal law, it is unlikely that an insurer would be concerned with that expense. They are more worried about the comorbidity stats. Believe it or not being morbidly obese makes it harder to get health insurance than most other health concerns. Check with your physician on the comorbity factors. Any primary care physician should be able to help with this and may possibly have some suggestions for health insurance companies (your physician wants you to have good insurance!). HTH
Try and see what your school suggests; many schools are going with their own group plans through an insurance carrier and you might be able to get a better rate than doin git on your own... however, every school is different.
(We were told in endocrine that Type I can be diagnosed at any age, because this is usually an autoimmune disorder; but the prevalence is high in children.)
(We were told in endocrine that Type I can be diagnosed at any age, because this is usually an autoimmune disorder; but the prevalence is high in children.)
My big recommendation is that you be sure to stay in a group policy. If you go with an individual policy (were you able to even find one to take you) it could affect your coverage later.
SOMA's insurance absolutely sucks, but if that's the only group policy you have access to, take it.
SOMA's insurance absolutely sucks, but if that's the only group policy you have access to, take it.
Thanks for all the advice. I am positive it is type one. I went into DKA in october last year, type II's have enough insulin to prevent them from going into DKA. Also, I had my physician run an islet cell antibody test and I was off the charts high. Again thanks to all for the advice.
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