by Christopher Gray
Each day, it seems like we hear more and more about the health care crisis in America. Medicare recipients cannot receive appropriate prescription coverage. HMO prescription coverage is disappearing year by year. For the blind, many types of health insurance are either not available, or the insurance is too costly for the average person to afford.
The American Council of the Blind is seriously investigating the feasibility of embarking on the creation of a health insurance program for our members. Several types of insurance plans could be offered that are either not currently available to blind people or available only at very high cost. Depending on interest and level of participation by the membership of ACB, we could create a very attractive health insurance program for blind people.
We would greatly appreciate receiving your feedback to determine whether we should pursue these opportunities. Please answer the following four questions to help us begin this investigation. Be sure to include your name and address along with your responses. Return them in the form of your choice to the ACB national office. Alternatively, you can fill out the survey on the ACB web site. Visit http://www.acb.org and follow the link to the ACB health care survey after May 10, 2003.
Questionnaire
ACB is also considering investigating the feasibility of obtaining long-term care (nursing home) coverage for its members. This kind of coverage has been just about unavailable to blind people on any reasonable cost basis. Nursing home care can virtually rob a person of his/her savings, unless he/she is already Medicaid-eligible, and the waiting period for Medicaid eligibility often means divesting personal assets in order to become eligible. If such coverage were to be obtainable on a group basis by ACB on behalf of the membership, it would likely provide a minimum of $300 per day in a skilled nursing facility or nursing home for a benefit period of up to three years of confinement. The benefit would cover the subscriber or spouse with both being eligible to take advantage of the coverage. The policy would be guaranteed renewable each year, although the rates might increase due to inflation.
With this background, please answer these questions:
(1) If ACB were to make available a comprehensive health insurance benefits program that would permit freedom of choice of physician, drug coverage, and limited coverage for technology and other devices that would improve your ability to engage in the activities of daily living, would you be:
(A) Very interested
(B) Interested, depending upon the price of the coverage
(C) Not interested
(2) If you were interested in such a policy, at which monthly premium level of individual and family coverage would you remain interested?
(A) $150 single - $300 family
(B) $175 single - $350 family
(C) $200 single - $400 family
(D) $250 single - $500 family
(E) $300 single - $600 family
ACB is also considering investigating the feasibility of obtaining long-term care (nursing home) coverage for its members. This kind of coverage has been just about unavailable to blind people on any reasonable cost basis. Nursing home care can virtually rob a person of his/her savings, unless he/she is already Medicaid-eligible, and the waiting period for Medicaid eligibility often means divesting personal assets in order to become eligible. If such coverage were to be obtainable on a group basis by ACB on behalf of the membership, it would likely provide a minimum of $300 per day in a skilled nursing facility or nursing home for a benefit period of up to three years of confinement. The benefit would cover the subscriber or spouse with both being eligible to take advantage of the coverage. The policy would be guaranteed renewable each year, although the rates might increase due to inflation.
With this background, please answer these questions:
(3) If the premium for such long-term care coverage were in the following ranges, indicate your level of interest:
[ ] $80 per month:
(A) Very interested
(B) Somewhat interested
(C) Not interested
[ ] $100 per month
(A) Very interested
(B) Somewhat interested
(C) Not interested
[ ] $120 per month
(A) Very interested
(B) Somewhat interested
(C) Not interested
(4) If the coverage were raised to $500 per day nursing home coverage and the length of the coverage period were raised to lifetime coverage if you were confined in a nursing home, and the premium was $200 per month for such coverage, would you be:
(A) Very interested
(B) Somewhat interested
(C) Not interested
Thank you for providing ACB with this information. I will provide feedback during the ACB national convention on the feasibility of obtaining these insurance coverages based on your responses.