Got laid off: no longer have health insurance, what are my options?
 

So I got laid off from my job of 3 years a month ago and no longer have health insurance. I got sick recently and my asthma resurfaced. I have a mild form of asthma that only seems to activate when I get sick sometimes. I only get sick once a year. I usually go to my doctor to get medication for my asthma and it goes away. But now I don't have health insurance and don't know what to do. What are my options? Is it really expensive to go see your doctor without health insurance?

My doctor charges $75 for a visit to those w/o insurance. Why not just give yours a call and ask?

Aside from that, you should have gotten a choice for COBRA from your HR. If you did not, there's something wrong.

FAQs For Employees About COBRA Continuation Health Coverage

I did, but it costs 400 bucks a month. I would have no money if I went with it.

No, Lubeboy - A provision of the Stimulus Package now pays 65% of COBRA for 9 months. Your payment would only be $140/month for the first 9 months.

Check into the link Cyn gave you and sign up. If you don't keep up your insurance, you'll run into the "Pre-existing Condition" exception for anything you've ever gone to the doctor about.

That should get you thru until Congress passes a Healthcare Reform Bill.
Whether the Bill will be of any help is a discussion best left for its own thread.

regardless of the insurance - go to the doctor!

I give thanks I live in a country where going to the doctor is free.

You should already know what medicines you need to take. Look at the label, you should be able to renew it without seeing the doc. Call the pharmacy that you got it last.

But it varies doctor to doctor and medication to medication.

A few weeks ago I went on a camping trip and got bitten by a tick. Recently laid off and no health insurance.

After seeking advice here, I found that free clinics can insure you if you qualify. I'd try calling a local free clinic and see if you can get coverage. If you're unemployed, you should be ok.

Seconded.

Your health needs to be priority number one. In your position I would be investigating free clinics as well, and at the same time I would aggressively pursue any option to continue or reinstate insurance.

Make sure that the asthma situation stays minor, so that it doesn't impact other aspects of your life. Like job hunting.

You could do as the Khmer Rouge advised on this point: "The rocks are your pillow." Meaning, never use the products of the American Imperialists, meaning hospitals, Western medicine.

If it is any consolation, millions are dying in pain now of tropical diseases, war wounds, and old age; I'm sure you are a tough guy despite how your asthma"r" remarks sound.

Most people put themselves before anything else, by that reasoning, do what ever you have to do to stay alive: lie, cheat, steal, murder. If doctors were so easy to walk away from, the medical industry would not be controling half the world today.

Have you considered buying the medication online?

That's an odd response.

For what it's worth, when I had asthma (is it one of those things that goes away, or has it just not bothered me in years?) I found that Primatene inhalers worked better than albuterol, and are OTC. Without prescription coverage, the $20 is likely far cheaper anyway.

Move to the Great White North. Trust me, I know what I'm talking aboot.