The first one that I want to talk about concerns home financing.

I purchased my home almost exactly three years ago. The market was already in decline and I got a really good deal on a house. I was also able to still do 100% financing at that time because of my history of home ownership with my ex. Since purchasing my home the real estate market continued to decline, especially in California. I appeared to now be in an underwater home, that is a home where the value of the house is less than the amount of the mortgage. In 2009 I applied for HAMP, the Home Affordable Modification Program created by the Barack Obama administration.

The HAMP process was horrible. It took over nine months and repeated requests to resend previously sent material to eventually be told that I was not going to be eligible because I had too high of a salary. Like many government programs HAMP bases their calculations on a national average rather than on a local average. I do make a good salary and if I lived in Oklahoma or Idaho or Mississippi then I would be considered very wealthy, but in Los Angeles I am simply upper-middle class.

A few months after I received the HAMP rejection letter I learned of two relatively new refinancing programs for people who had not missed any of their loan payments and the value of the house was within 105% of the cost of the loan. These programs were called Open Access (for Freddie Mac loans) and Refi Plus (for Fannie Mae loans).

I was a little nervous about undergoing another 9 month process, like I did with HAMP, but I called my current mortgage lender to ask about these programs and was very pleasantly surprised that the entire process was basically done after a 15 minute phone call. Obviously, it took longer than 15 minutes, but after that first phone call I was provisionally approved and mailed the forms to fill out and then had my house re-appraised (it actually appraised for the same amount as it originally did three years ago). Today my loan was locked in at a rate that is about 2.5% less than what I have been paying and the monthly mortgage payment will be decreasing by nearly $700.

The second change that I want to discuss is something that was included as part of the Health Care Reform Act that passed earlier this year.

I currently get my health coverage through the Entertainment Partners Health Plan. However, the plan is ending on December 31, 2010. Entertainment Partners can no longer afford to continue the plan and in December 2009 they sent a letter explaining the decision. I have Type 1 Diabetes, so I am unable to get individual health coverage due to it being a pre-existing condition. The rules that will prevent health insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions won’t go into effect until 2014.

Basically, I was screwed. I am a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy and I called their health insurance representatives to see what plans I might be able to join and they currently only offer reduced rate individual plans, so I am not eligible for those because of my pre-existing condition. I am also a Costco member and earlier this year I noticed that they provided a group health plan in California, but when I called them to ask about it I learned that they no longer provide a health plan in California.

However, when talking with one of the insurance representatives she said that if I am not going to be eligible for COBRA Insurance (which I’m not because I’m not leaving the job, the plan itself is shutting down) then due to a part of the Health Care Reform Act that did go into effect immediately my current health care provider HAS to enroll me in an individual health care plan at the same rate as they charge for anybody else. So, it now looks like I will have a health care plan come January 1, 2011.

These two changes were created by the Obama Administration and I hadn’t heard anything about them originally. I think that these plans have the ability to help many more people in situations similar to mine and I wanted to get the word out as best as I could.

{cross-posted at Derek's Random Thoughts]