Life does not end the moment you are diagnosed for HIV positive. If you take good care of yourself and take your medicines properly, you can still live a very long life, that too, without any complications. So, considering the very fact that medical expenses are skyrocketing these days, it is very important for you to make sure that you have a good health insurance policy in your hand to cover the catastrophic costs of the treatment. However, you may find it a very difficult task to find a new policy while having such medical condition because most insurance providers do not provide coverage for such individuals. However, you don’t have to be disappointed. There are still several ways out there.
Getting Insurance Through Your Employer
If you are employed, you must try to talk to your employer and try to get as much coverage as you can with your policy. The good thing here is that in case of employer-based health insurance, neither your employer nor the actual insurance provider requires you to go through medical check up in order to qualify for the policy. Remember, you will always need an active policy in your hand. So even when you are between jobs or jobless, make sure that your policy is duly active. An easy way to do this is to use your rights provided by COBRA under the Federal laws. COBRA allows you to keep your policy active extended up to a period of 18 months even after losing your job.
Self Employed Or Business Owners
If you own a small business or work as a self employed individual, you can easily find several trade associations and business organizations, where you can get your health insurance coverage from. You just have to get membership of those organizations.
Getting Insurance Through State Government
As a last resort, you can always bank on your state government. Every state in the United States of America has special laws to support those individuals who cannot get an insurance policy for health coverage from other places. However, this option can be a little expensive. You will be required to pay a much higher rate of premium. There are several public and private agencies as well that can help you in this regard – these are state supported agencies that promote universal health coverage.
In fact, states like New York, California, and Massachusetts have passed special legislation in order to guarantee health insurance coverage for everybody – regardless of whether he/she is in job or jobless and regardless of whatever medical conditions they have.
