I have a friend who just lost his job and is in need of medical insurance because of existing conditions. He was checking into Healthy New York and discovered something that should raise more than a few eyebrows out there: HealthyNY does not cover mental health. At all.
So, after all those television commercials featuring our former governor Pataki, where does one go to get mental health issues covered if they’re out of work? Even better, our supposed lifeline for health insurance in this country also goes on in its website to state the following:
Pre-Existing Condition Limitation
Coverage under the Healthy NY program is subject to a pre-existing condition waiting period. This means that if the applicant has a medical condition that they have been either diagnosed with or treated for in the last six months, services for the treatment of that condition may be excluded from coverage for up to a year.
Republicans and Conservatives can say what they want about the government not getting involved in people’s lives. But I think a big question we all have to ask ourselves is: if they’re going to get involved, what are we going to get for our tax dollars?
More coverage to come. . .