ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 7, 1996 TAG: 9605070104
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: STEVE SAKSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
John Bromell's decision to quit his job for law school left him without health insurance for seven years. No one would cover him because of his multiple sclerosis. Now his family's policy costs $300 a month.
Barry Allbright's asthma has landed him in the hospital three times. When he left his career as a congressional staffer to go into real estate, he couldn't get coverage for a year. Now he's locked into his job so he can keep his policy. His family's monthly cost: nearly $500.
Paula Klearman has a heart condition and had been covered by her husband's insurance. She lost coverage when he retired, and she was forced to get it from a state high-risk pool. The couple's total monthly bill is now $800.
Such stories illustrate why Democrats and Republicans have agreed on the need for federal legislation making it easier for people with chronic ailments to keep their health insurance if they change or lose their jobs.
They also illustrate what advocates of the current bill on insurance ``portability'' acknowledge is a big loophole: The legislation doesn't guarantee that the insurance will be affordable.
``I'm never secure. I'm worrying they're going to raise my rates. I'm worrying about keeping my job. It's very unpredictable,'' said Klearman, 60, of Chesterfield, Mo., who works as a part-time motor vehicle office clerk.
Mike Horak, a spokesman for Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., acknowledged that the bill ``is not the answer to all the ills that ail the health care system.''
Kassebaum and co-sponsor Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., kept the bill's goals modest to garner enough support from both political parties and the various health-care industries it affects, Horak said. Even now, after its passage by both the House and Senate, it is tied up in political wrangling over amendments involving medical savings accounts and caps on malpractice awards.
The bill's main provision would guarantee that people who have been covered by health insurance still will be able to get it if they change jobs, lose their job or become self-employed. This would help some 25 million people with long-lasting medical conditions, congressional accountants say.
But state regulators would continue to control the insurance rates, a situation that already has cost Klearman thousands.
In 1989, she underwent an angioplasty, in which a doctor used a tiny balloon to reopen a clogged heart artery. This was covered by her husband's policy.
In 1992, as he was getting ready to retire, they realized she would have to buy a policy on her own. No private insurer would sell her one. While she was accepted into the high-risk pool, it failed to cover her heart condition for a year.
Today, Paula Klearman would like to retire, too, but said she must keep her job to pay the premiums.
``Every year since I've had it, my rates have gone up,'' she said.
Barry Allbright's asthma last put him in the hospital two years ago, when a 1 a.m. attack nearly took his life, said his wife, Betty Kay.
``He was downstairs working and he didn't even have enough air to call for me. He dialed 911 and the rescue squad broke in,'' she recalled.
Luckily, by that time, Allbright, 42, had coverage. His wife had found a policy for self-employed people, but the family had to endure the uncertainty of a one-year period during which Allbright's asthma was excluded from the policy.
``I always tell people, don't ever quit your job,'' said Betty Allbright, who runs a child-care center out of their home in Herndon, Va.
In July, the family's policy is up for renewal. ``He's been to see a pulmonary specialist. I'm afraid they'll raise our premiums so we can't afford it,'' Allbright said.
John Bromell, 31, had coverage working as a proofreader for a Washington law firm but left in 1988 to go to law school.
At the time, he had experienced some loss of muscular coordination, but his multiple sclerosis hadn't yet been diagnosed, and he didn't seek coverage right away.
``I didn't understand I was in such a dangerous position, so I let it go for a few months,'' he said. ``As soon as the insurance companies heard I had a neurological condition, they didn't want any part of me.''
Luckily, Bromell has stayed relatively healthy and now practices law in St. Louis. He finally got coverage under his wife's policy. He describes his years without insurance as ``living on the edge.''
``You're counting on the fates,'' he said. ``If anything goes wrong, your savings are gone.''
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB