Loss of health insurance can be one of the side effects of unemployment

Losing a job affects a lot more income. Health insurance also often becomes a victim.

Unemployment in Jackson County hit 13.4 percent in March, and area health professionals said they had noticed patients adjust their approach to taking care of their health.

Some area residents seem to take advantage of health insurance, while they still have it.

Ray King, chief physician to the allegiance and health to a family doctor Townsend Medical Center, said he and other doctors see a primary or two patients a week who say things are done -- or at least check before their insurance runs out.

"But we do not see this a lot," he says.

In general, the king said, he noticed that patients with and without health insurance are more intelligent, more creative decisions about their care. For people without insurance, people are holding off on the procedures and save them.

King said the first months of the year are a little slower than patients with insurance to try to wait until their deductibles have been met before opting for treatment or surgery you want.

"Consumers are wise and judicious," he said.

The biggest problem for the newly unemployed is to move a group employer-sponsored plan to buy an individual plan.

Helen Stojic, a spokeswoman for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, said in an e-mail Blue Cross expects a growth of the individual in the market as people who previously had coverage of the move to purchase the guarantee of their own.

Richard Ward, CEO of the Michigan State University HealthTeam, said that this issue is difficult to see, statistically, since health professionals will not be able to make a proper assessment of the effect of unemployment on health insurance after the fact.

The HealthTeam consists of approximately 200 physicians and nurse practitioners in 14 clinical services, as well as many allied health professionals such as nurses, psychologists, social workers, therapists and nutritionists.

For those who have lost or will lose their insurance, Ward recommends people do not take too long before seeking an individual. He also stressed the importance of simply based on a general medical condition.

In addition, many communities across the county to offer their own health plans. The Jackson Health Plan, managed in part by the Department of Human Services and the Center for Family Health, provides low-income, uninsured residents of a health coverage program.

Norman Isotalo, spokesman for the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency said the agency does not provide health insurance with unemployment benefits.

But he said there is some good news for those seeking to assist COBRA payments.

Under the new federal bill stimulus - the recovery and America Reinvestment Act of 2009 - the workers laid off after September 1, 2008, which was sponsored by the employer health insurance and the necessary qualifications for COBRA coverage may be 65 percent of their premium paid by the federal government for a maximum of nine months.

This includes workers, who initially turned down COBRA because they consider too expensive. They now have a second chance to register, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration.

COBRA allows workers who lose their jobs - and their health benefits - the right to purchase group health coverage provided by the plan under certain circumstances. If the employer continues to offer a health plan, the employee and his family can keep their health coverage group up to 18 months by paying the group rates.
by Ingrid Jacques