Posted by jvan31 on July 12, 2008 at 09:33:37:In Reply to: Re: Stanford MMA'ers. Insurance??? posted by Michael_needs_sleep on July 12, 2008 at 04:02:38:
The insurance thing is called ICHIP--Illinois Comprehensive
Health Insurance Plan (www.chip.state.il.us). It is designed for
people who can't get health coverage for through their job for
some reason or for those who have been denied private
coverage (they'll want proof of it). One of my doctors mentioned
it when I lost my cobra coverage due to age restriction (I was
still in school--rather, back in school). There is one plan (plan
5 maybe?) that I qualified for which cannot exclude you b/c of
previous conditions. There is another one that requires you to
wait 6 months or so to file claims on a previous condition, if I
recall correctly.It isn't cheap insurance, I wouldn't say but I don't have a lot of
experience with other plans.I live in Chicago as well, and there may be some excellent
surgeons here, but I was very comfortable at Stanford.In addition to sleep specialists, it might be good to see an
allergist (unless nasal stuffiness is caused by anatomic reasons,
eg, deviated septum). Treating that may help cpap compliance
in the meantime. And check out some of the posts about soft
surgery tissue--many people don't like/wouldn't repeat it. I did
have tonsils and UPPP and geniotubercle advancement at
Stanford, which helped me, but not enough to get off CPAP--I
did MMA to do that.Let me know if I can help any more. I know a couple specialists
in Chicago (not surgeons) and actually used to work at the
Northwestern Sleep Lab doing research.Best,
Jeff