Social Security identifies 200 serious health conditions that receive Compassionate Allowances when people apply for Social Security disability benefits.    The Compassionate Allowances program fast-tracks disability decisions to ensure that Americans with the most serious disabilities receive their benefit decisions within days instead of months – or years.  These conditions primarily include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, and a number of rare disorders that affect children.

By definition, these conditions are so severe that Social Security does not need to fully develop the applicant’s work history to make a decision.  As a result, Social Security eliminated this part of the application process for people who have a condition on the list.

The full list of diseases and conditions that get fast-track disability decisions can be found here: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances/conditions.htm

This is good news for people who have been newly diagnosed with one of the 200 seriously illnesses on the list. The bad news is that most of these people will have to wait 24 months before they get Medicare. In the meantime, if they have lost their health insurance because they can’t work, they are out of luck.  They could use COBRA for 18 months (or more) – if they can afford the high price that comes with paying the full cost of their employer health insurance.

When their COBRA runs out, they could take advantage the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which says people who have had health insurance without a break must be provided one or two coverage options by every health insurance company. This sounds awesome except that insurance companies are allowed to charge these people outrageous premiums. Insurance companies take the highest premium for the person’s age and triple it. The person with a pre-existing condition can take it or leave it.  Anyone above 50 years old will likely pay $1,000, $1,500, or more per month if they take a HIPAA policy.  This is very bad news for people who are too sick to work and cannot afford such outrageous premiums.

Of course, all this changes one year from now – and that is good news.

Everybody’s been talking about contraception lately, and  I have a few questions. Is this debate about religious freedom?  Or is it about birth control being part of preventive care?  Or is the debate about some people’s desire to turn back the clock…to a time when people didn’t have sex outside of marriage?

Currently 28 states require insurers that cover prescription drugs to also provide coverage of FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and devices.

Arizona has had this requirement since 2002. But that won’t be the case for much longer, now that our Tea Party-controlled legislature is on the case. Quick as a button, our esteemed legislators have proposed a bill to allow employers to refuse coverage of contraceptives as part of their group health insurance for religious reasons.

Currently each state sets standards for what health insurance policies must cover.  For example, in 2010, only 12 states mandated coverage of maternity care in the individual insurance market, and 17 required it in the small-group market.

Arizona is one of the states where individual health insurance policies do not cover maternity, except for complications of pregnancy. And yet, young women are charged about $100 more per month than young men for the same policy.

In Arizona, if a woman without health insurance gets pregnant, she is uninsurable if she is trying to buy health insurance as an individual. That’s because her pregnancy is a pre-existing condition and she will be denied health insurance. Nationwide, 13% of women who become pregnant each year are not insured, which often results in inadequate prenatal care.

Federal law requires insurance coverage of contraceptives for federal employees and their dependents.

The health care reform law (the Affordable Care Act) provides a long list of services, including maternity coverage and contraceptives, that must be covered by all health insurance policies in all states.  Given that 99% of American women have used contraceptives, the panel of health care experts who came up with the list must have figured this was a settled issue. I guess they were wrong.

I hope the debate  continues through November because it puts a spotlight on women’s health, contraception, maternity coverage, and how bad the current health insurance system is for women. The more people talk about these things, the more they might realize the Affordable Care Act is a step in the right direction.