Medical insurance is becoming more and more difficult to obtain. If you are trying to cover yourself and your family, premiums are extremely expensive, sometimes eating up at least a week’s worth of wages. The conditions that are not benefits or are minimally covered benefits are becoming more numerous while the conditions that are considered essential coverage by a large portion of people are becoming scarce. In addition, a great number of people simply cannot pay the required premiums since they have increased so dramatically, so those people are exposed to health situations that require expensive treatment.

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.

This kind of insurance situation puts people who deal with migraines on a regular basis with a limited amount of pills each month (i.e. 10-12), and then they have to decide which one of their migraines they’ll use one of the pills for, when this is medication they should be taking whenever they have a migraine. Insurance doesn’t cover them if all the pills are used before the end of the month, so the expense to reorder more pills becomes theirs alone. These migraine sufferers will continue to pay their premiums, but due to the skyrocketed prices of many of these medications, many are unable to pay for them out of their own pocket, so they just suffer through. It has been found that migraines can often be signs of other unknown health issues. Some of these quickly end up in a stroke. And what are the results of this occurs on a night when they felt they couldn’t, or just didn’t, take the medication?

Medicaid is one such possibility applied for by increasing numbers of people every month. But of course, as with all government sponsored programs, Medicaid is highly regulated, difficult to qualify for financially and mired in endless paperwork and bureaucracy. Income restrictions are strict and closely monitored. The government will also periodically review your case and all appointments must be met and phone calls returned promptly or your benefits could be canceled immediately without notice.

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.

Get details on the different Types of Migraine Headaches and to Learn Insurance and Migraine Options, Visit the Migraine Headache Guide at Migraines-Headaches.org.