My relative didn’t pay premium and lost insurance while sick. Is moving his only viable option to get insured again?
I've learned this week that an early-60s relative didn't pay his bills while sick with Covid earlier this year. He's still very fatigued, and only now told us that he lost his insurance coverage. He was told he can't start it again until the end of the year.
I'm trying to see if there's any way in which he's not truly screwed. Catastrophic insurance seems to require that the person is healthy: my relative isn't healthy (high BMI, previous health problems, and post viral illness). He currently can't work, and his work is as an independent contractor: this isn't employer-based insurance but individual market insurance. He's got so much brain fog he couldn't make it 5 minutes through a job interview.
From what I'm reading, the only qualifying life event could be if he moved to a different state. This world be hard for him to do. But the rest of us are scared beyond belief that he could have a medical emergency and then we'd all be figuring out how to raise $100,000 because of one missing $1000 payment. There doesn't seem to be a special enrollment insurance option for "made bad decisions while sick"- is moving going to be his only good option?
submitted by /u/MercuryFlights
[comments]
