| By :
Wiley Long
Migraines can produce excruciating pain and nausea making people unable to work, or handle any of life's daily chores. These devastating headaches cause people to lose an average of four-to-six days of work each year. According to a study published in the April 13, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, if you lack private health insurance, you are twice as likely to get inadequate treatment for migraines as someone who has private insurance. If you're insured through Medicaid, you are one-and-a-half times as likely to get substandard treatment for migraines. Migraines Can Be Controlled with Behavioral Treatment and Prescriptions Despite the availability of effective treatment for migraines, millions of uninsured or inadequately insured Americans suffer needlessly. Reducing this suffering means we must not only transform our health care system, but we must also educate doctors about how to prescribe the most effective available drug and behavioral treatments. Neurologists typically recommend one of two types of drugs for moderate-to-severe migraine attacks. Either "triptans" (such as sumatriptan), or dihydroergotamine may be prescribed for most people with frequent or severe migraines. Neurologists also recommend a daily dose of one of several preventive prescriptions. However, people without health insurance in Florida are less likely than those with private insurance to receive proper treatment for migraines. People Without Insurance Are Twice As Likely To Get Inferior Migraine Care For the study of migraine treatment, researchers analyzed 6,814 visits for migraines between 1997 and 2007. They used data collected by the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, and the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. The latter survey provided a nationally representative sample of all U.S. visits to doctors' offices, emergency rooms, and hospital clinics. The data showed that people with no insurance were twice as likely to receive substandard migraine care as people who had private health insurance. People with Medicaid were 50 percent more likely to be given substandard treatment. People without health insurance and those using Medicaid were more likely to seek help for migraines in emergency rooms than in a doctor's office. This may explain some, but not all, of the inferior care given. People were one-fifth as likely to receive standard acute treatment to stop a migraine, and 10 percent as likely to receive standard treatment to prevent a migraine in emergency rooms compared to in doctors' offices. With approximately 15 percent of people currently being uninsured nationwide, and with migraines affecting 12 percent of the population, the researchers estimate that 5.5 million Americans are at risk for substandard migraine treatment. That means avoidable disability and suffering are being tolerated in the nation with the highest GDP of all. New Help for Those without Health Insurance in Florida Part of the reason that some people are without health insurance in Florida is that pre-existing conditions make it almost impossible to get coverage. That's about to change thanks to a new U.S. Department of Health and Human Services program. This new federal program has $5 billion worth of funding, and Florida was allotted $351 million of those funds, making Florida's allocation second only to that of Texas. The temporary high-risk pool program to help people with pre-existing conditions will be available to Florida on July 1 of this year through Jan. 1, 2014. That's when national health care reform will finally stop insurance companies from denying health insurance if you have a pre-existing condition. The new law will provide 4 million uninsured Florida residents affordable health insurance premiums through the high-risk pool program. With this program, participants' out-of-pocket expenses cannot exceed $5,950 per person. This new effort to extend equal care to all Americans will not only help the millions suffering from migraines, but will also benefit the millions more with pre-existing conditions who are currently denied medical care. When Florida health insurance becomes available to more people, our country will take a giant step toward living up to its image as the land of the free. With equal access to medical treatment, more people will have the freedom to live and work without the burden of debilitating health problems - problems that are treatable when health insurance is available to all.
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