Migraines and Health Coverage: What Does your Insurance Cover?
It is getting more difficult for most people to buy health insurance. The rising cost of insurance premiums are already beyond the means of many individuals to pay. Families with children have it even worse. Insurance formularies are under constant revision as more and more medications are removed or reclassified to cost more. Maintenance medications are periodically eliminated leaving the patient to buy more expensive alternatives. Most consumers cannot pay the monthly premiums which leads them to purchase the bare minimum of coverage which may not address what conditions they already have or new ones which may develop later on.
The latest, on the long list of deleted services are medications for migraine headaches. In the past, migraines were traditionally treated with the pain killers, muscle relaxants and sedatives usually used for other conditions. Focus was on the symptoms and not the cause.
Work was done on developing and advancing new prescription medications during the 1980′s and 1990′s, precisely for migraine treatment, control, and relief. Some of the medications created worked well by themselves, some were combined with pain medication, as well as other times types of medications. Now that we’re in the 21st century, there are a lot of medications that have been created explicitly for migraines, and people who suffer from this condition are able to find them in numerous locations throughout this country as well as other parts of the world. The problem comes from the fact that many of these medications are priced beyond the reach of average workers, and health insurance either covers an inadequate amount of the cost, or doesn’t cover them at all.
Medications developed specifically for migraines, and meant to be taken with every migraine, are often doled out in amounts of 8 to 12 pills monthly. This leaves the patient with the task of determining which migraines they can medicate and which they must suffer through to conserve medication. Insurance will not pay for early refills and so the patient must pay the lion’s share of the exorbitant cost. Even when a patient is up to date on their insurance premium payments, they often can not make use of that insurance to purchase the medications they really need. Migraine headaches can signal other health conditions. They have been linked to stroke. Are there other options for those who cannot afford the cost of medication?
Medicaid can be a viable option for some people, like someone I know, who can’t pay for insurance. To apply, you have to complete a multitude of forms and earn only the Medicaid maximum, but if you are able to get Medicaid to accept you, your physician appointments and medications could be covered. But once you get Medicaid, you must stay on top of things or you could be canceled if you don’t follow all of their regulations to ensure coverage.
It’s really sad that we now have medications that have been developed, are needed, and plentiful, yet we have insurance companies are creating difficult to impossible situations for people to have access to vitally needed medications. So the question now is whether people suffering with migraines become the current victim of insurance cutbacks, or is there going to be an option for migraine sufferers to have the coverage needed to receive the medication required? Questions like these, and more, are now before the new Congress for consideration. Hopefully these answers and more with be forthcoming in the near future.
To Learn More About Various Types of Migraines and to Learn Migraine Health Insurance Options, Visit the Migraine Headache Guide at Migraines-Headaches.org.
