If chicken sandwiches can become political, how can health care be immune?

Last week, I wrote about Susan, a divorced woman in Ladue who decided to go back to school and become a teacher. To comply with student teaching requirements, she quit a nonteaching job with the Clayton School District. That job had provided her with health insurance.

So she got health insurance through COBRA, a program that requires employers with group health insurance to offer former employees the opportunity to buy insurance through the group plan for up to 18 months.

Susan figured she would get a teaching job before the 18 months were up.

That has not worked out. She graduated this spring but has been unable to find a position.

As I mentioned in the column, the job market is tight and nobody was willing to take a chance with a first-time, 50-year-old teacher.

She has decided to work as a substitute teacher. Maybe that experience will help her get a job.

But her 18 months of COBRA will run out in December. She tried to get an individual policy, but because of pre-existing conditions scoliosis and a mild blood disorder she was turned down.

Susan told me she doesn't know what she will do. She said she won't be eligible for pool insurance until she has been without insurance for six months.

She said she is waiting to see what happens with Obamacare. Under the new law, insurance companies would not be allowed to deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

See original here:

McClellan tries to make sense of health insurance