My ex actually worked for a municipality (he's a cop) and their underwriter slapped a million dollar surcharge on their policy - over me - so they tried to find another underwriter and got an entire series of "no bid until she drops off the cobra" responses from virtually every big, medium and little name in insurance.  

So, yeah, I know what you mean, hard to justify I am worth an extra million a year to an employer on top of my salary and other benefits.  I blame the whole screwed-up system.

Thanks, and actually, I had such an easy course of treatment and recovery my kids (two in high school, two in middle school and all terrified at the time) go around now telling people they think I "faked" leukemia for the vacation from them in a clean room.  I had extraordinarily good doctors, nurses, treatment, care, etc at a top-notch teaching hospital.  

I got lucky, though, and I know it.  Not everyone is so fortunate in the level of expertise and care they receive.  I know the first oncologist/hematologist I saw threatened to sue my insurer to get me into that particular hospital.  According to him - at least at that time - leukemia survival rates are 50% higher in teaching hospitals than even in major medical centers - such as my insurer first wanted me to check into.

Good for you recovering from that stroke.  Perhaps we will both have access one day - until then, lets just hope we both stay healthy.  I honestly think that is the only real way to beat the current system!

If you work at a small to medium-sized company it's easy for the health insurance system to make pariahs out of your ill co-workers and their families. Where I work, it's common knowledge that two individuals (out of 250) have wreaked havoc on our insurance over the past few years. One had a brain aneurysm, and survived. Another's wife had premature twins; she was hospitalized for 6 weeks, and the twins for 8 weeks after they were born. (They are all perfectly healthy now.) The father of the twins works for another firm now, but I know him pretty well and was told that care for his family was billed at well over $1,000,000.

To give you an idea of the upshot of this: At one point there was only one insurer in the state willing to even quote us a rate. Another time, we had to shop for a new insurer because the existing one was going to increase our premium by 40%, just to renew our policy for one year. We used to be able to get 3-year contracts, but no one will sell us those anymore. The insurers want it year-to-year so they can keep their options open.

To my employer's great credit, they have not been tempted by any of the perverse incentives to cut loose the ill employees. Nor do you hear anyone grousing about it. I think everyone hopes that we'll get the same treatment if and when our time comes.