[albrecht86]

Hello. I mentioned before I am in the US looking to get a T but I wanted to first get health insurance so I do not get slammed with extra premiums for pre existing condition if I get a T first.

But then I started thinking, do I need to even disclose that, if I am seeing one privately and paying out of pocket ?

What other repercussions could seeing a t have and how much would I need to disclose it in the future at various points (I know I don't for my job but would have to for things like life insurance? car insurance? housing? etc )?

Any advise is appreciated

[DePressMe]

The long term health conditions caused by untreated mental illness is really bad for a person. I have been in therapy and on meds since I was 16 (now 40) and I've never been turned down for insurance although I know it varies for everybody. I decided the risk was worth being treated because I was getting so sick when I was not being treated...sorry, not much of an answer....D.

[anneo59]

Originally Posted by DePressMe

The long term health conditions caused by untreated mental illness is really bad for a person. I have been in therapy and on meds since I was 16 (now 40) and I've never been turned down for insurance although I know it varies for everybody. I decided the risk was worth being treated because I was getting so sick when I was not being treated...sorry, not much of an answer....D.

Yes, I would agree, most important to get needed help, but with all electronic records, in most places these days, it's may not going to be a private as you like. But please take care of yourself and be well!

[Perna]

Insurance is insurance; you cannot go out and buy T insurance that will be less than what it costs to go to T. Groups who have insurance (big companies, government agencies, etc.) you join one of them and you get group rates. But if you just go out and buy insurance to see a T, it is kind of obvious that you are buying insurance to see a T and you can't get there from here? No one is going to "pay you" to go see a T, they are going to charge you because they have to do the paper work, etc. Maybe you only have to pay T $20 but if your premium is $400/month then you are effectively paying $120 a week for T? If T only charges $100 out of pocket. . .

That's why insurance companies usually have their T's you get to choose between; T's that take their insurance and the price they want to pay the T. It is great if your T takes a zillion insurances but T's generally don't, unless they are part of a large practice that has a secretary, billing person, etc. and those T have to charge more because they have to pay the secretary, billing person, etc.

I would go find the T you want to see and find out what insurances they take/don't take, how much they charge, negotiate to see if you can pay less on your own, etc. Otherwise you are working from the business end not your end. Unless you work for a biggish business you cannot really get a "discount" using insurance, it's not worth it. If you are on Medicare/Medicaid/don't have much money then you pretty much "have to" use it but finding a practitioner is harder as those insurances don't pay enough to meet the T's expenses so they have to find more/enough clients paying out-of-pocket, or are a governmental agency being subsidized, etc. and the combination of having to do the paperwork AND find better paying clients somewhere makes it so fewer T's can or want to afford that scenario.

Insurance only works because people in a group get sick at different rates; it's very much like car insurance, not everyone gets into an accident but we all have to pay our insurance each month anyway. That goes to pay for people who get in accidents. Health insurance pays for people who get sick because the other people are paying premiums and they are not sick. You cannot have all the people sick at the same time, all the people who buy T insurance cannot all go to T (why dental and vision insurance is so expensive and lame and why vet insurance for your pets doesn't work).

[Moodswing]

My T takes:
Blue Cross/Blue Shield
Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield
Tufts Health Plan
United Health Care
Harvard Pilgrim/Pacificare
Many EAP Plans.

and he hires a service that does all the paper work and claims for the insurance. He is also a one mans show. It is his own practice.

[Moodswing]

Originally Posted by Moodswing

My T takes:
Blue Cross/Blue Shield
Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield
Tufts Health Plan
United Health Care
Harvard Pilgrim/Pacificare
Many EAP Plans.

and he hires a service that does all the paper work and claims for the insurance. He is also a one mans show. It is his own practice.

Besides I would pimp myself out to come up with the money to see him if I had to pay out of pocket.

[gayleggg]

Insurance companies will ask about diagnosis. So it depends on the diagnosis you get whether it will affect your getting insurance. I was diagnosed bipolar and was turned down for insurance. I had seen a pdoc and therapist under another insurance, so they would be able to check so I had to tell them the diagnosis.
Gayle

[angustios101]

In the U.S., people typically pay out of pocket for Ts, pdocs, and psych meds if they don't want a searchable record (sometimes they do this for insurance purposes but more likely for job and government job clearance purposes). Not being truthful on your health insurance application is fraud BUT, under obamacare, an insurance company can't drop you if you made an honest mistake when filling out the forms (which in my book includes omission). If you apply for group health insurance through your job, and they detect a record of mental health diagnoses, AND you had group health insurance prior to signing up for the new group health insurance, they can't bar you from joining the new group because of HIPPA and now because Obamacare and the preexisting conditions clause in the law. That says that no health insurance group or individual can discriminate based on preexisting conditions come October 2013 (not to sure on the date, but it's going to happen soon). and no insurance group or individual, can charge you more than others in your age bracket just because you have an MH diagnosis.

Now, the key issue here is the health insurances that are beholden to Obamacare. There are some that are NOT beholden to the new law (mine, for example) where all the old rules apply. in that case they can discriminate against you because of MH, charge you more, etc. These kind of plans are the exception though so I would just ask if you consider signing up if they are grandfathered or not. Hope this helps.

[Perna]

My work health insurance included T insurance but I paid out-of-pocket for my T. The insurance does not get activated so what I was doing with T had nothing to do with anything. Nowadays health insurance is mostly for the catastrophic health events; like my husband puts it, "I can pay for a broken arm but not heart surgery".

I treated T as if it were an elaborate school/university to which I didn't have any scholarships

[albrecht86]

Thank you all for the feedback! OF course, I do understand that getting help is better than not getting help, but just trying to gauge and prepare for what that might entail...

Originally Posted by Perna

I would go find the T you want to see and find out what insurances they take/don't take, how much they charge, negotiate to see if you can pay less on your own, etc. Otherwise you are working from the business end not your end.

That's a good point and what I already started on in the meantime. However I'm finding most online T searches absolutely terrible (including the one on PsychCentral). For instance they wont let me select more than 1 "area of specialization", or they allow me to search by ZIP or specialization, but not both at the same time. Boggles the mind!

[redbandit]

Originally Posted by gayleggg

Insurance companies will ask about diagnosis. So it depends on the diagnosis you get whether it will affect your getting insurance. I was diagnosed bipolar and was turned down for insurance. I had seen a pdoc and therapist under another insurance, so they would be able to check so I had to tell them the diagnosis.
Gayle

wow! I had no idea insurance companies could turn you down like that, I have bipolar disorder as well. I thought certain things just didn't cover "pre-existing" conditions. That's the part I never understood, though. What qualifies as pre-exisiting?? I've had these health problems most of my life, I've never gotten turned down *fingers crossed*