who's insured?

I am the colleague discussed in the comment from the New York Times reprinted below. I live in Minnesota, was an associate professor of english at small college which I cannot name for fear of losing the small amount of benefit that I retain as an ex exmployee wrongly notified of my status. But it's true, all true. Most of us have lost the will and the courage to stand up for our colleagues and neighbors. We are afraid that we are next in line. Corporations are the nazis of the 21st century. I can't name the one that terminated me but many of you know who I am and can pretty much figure out the details based on that knowledge.

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NYC
August 30th, 2009
8:08 am
It is not so astonishing that 75% of the people who are forced into medical bankruptcies had health insurance when you understand how employer-sponsored health insurance works. I found out last week, and think that, if more people realized that they are not covered in the event of chronic or catastrophic illness, even the most ardent advocates of private insurance would become advocates for health care reform.

What I learned, after a colleague was diagnosed with late-stage cancer that would require aggressive, long-term treatment, was that after 90 days out of the office on sick leave, an employee is placed on long-term disability and, if he is unable to make COBRA payments, has no further health care coverage. That's right; if you get too sick to work for three months, you lose your health insurance -- right in the middle of chemotherapy, or while you are recovering from a serious accident or stroke. That's because, once you are on long-term disability, your employer has no further obligations to you, including regarding benefits, and you are consequently dropped from the employer's plan. I was made to understand that the transfer to disability and cancellation of insurance benefits are required by the disability and medical insurance policies issued to all employers, and that no state or federal law currently can prevent such cancellations.

Even if you can afford COBRA (which is very expensive), your benefits will be extended no longer than 18 months. That means that eighteen months and 90 days after you fall ill, or have an accident, you no longer have any health insurance at all. You're on your own. No "government bureaucrat" will come between you and your doctor because, unless you have the money, you won't have a doctor.

This news shocked me, and made me wonder whether all those who oppose health claim reform on the ground that they prefer their employer plans, realize that they are not covered if they become chronically ill, or have a catastrophic accident, regardless of whether they are employed when the illness or accident occurs. Nobody has health care coverage in such circumstances. We are all uninsured.

I hope that the Obama administration and other supporters of health care reform stress this point when Congress returns in September. It's not merely the uninsured that we need to worry about -- it's all us insured people who are, in the final analysis, in the same boat as the least insured if we have the bad luck to become too sick or injured to work for 90 days or more.

90 days. Three months. Plus 18 months for COBRA. Don't you want health reform? If not, to paraphrase Barney Frank, on what planet do you spend most of our time?