Grace Period for Pre-Existing Conditions After Being Uninsured?
As everyone has said, HIPAA will protect you from a new employer’s group health plan’s pre-existing condition exclusion as long as you don’t have more than a 63 day gap in creditable coverage. If you get a job with health insurance coverage starting within 63 days after your last day at your old job, you have nothing to worry about. Lots of group health plans have no exclusions for pre-existing conditions, so if you do happen to get a job with an employer with a plan like that, you won’t have to worry about that stuff. Then, all you have to worry about is not getting hit by a bus when you’re uninsured. Some of this worry can be alleviated by careful COBRA planning — you have 60 days to elect (from the date when the notice was given to you), and then 45 days to pay the back premium. So, you can elect after 59 days and then wait another 44 days to pay (or not pay as the case may be) and if anything happens to you in that 105 day window, you’ll have insurance. Keep in mind that if you do
Be careful about assuming you don’t have pre-existing conditions; Kaiser Permanente refused to insure me because of my pre-existing condition of depression – I take a low dose of prozac, which is so cheap as a generic that 3 months supply costs me less than dinner out. What they’ll exclude or screw you over can be very minor. Aside from that, don’t be without health insurance. I have a friend who’s in his 7th year of making payments on a simple appendectomy. At the age he was when he had the problem he could have been insured for as little as $40 a month. Imagine how much a major injury could have amounted up to. COBRA is a LOT more expensive than many other alternatives. When I was a 31-year-old non-smoker I was able to buy BlueCross/BlueShield coverage which was actually pretty good for about $110 a month. There were some options for about $15 less but it wasn’t worth the savings. You can go look on HealthInsurance.com and I think you’ll b
Even if your break in coverage is longer than 63 days, an insurer cannot deny you coverage of your preexisting condition for longer than 12 months if you enroll in the employer’s group plan. The requirements vary, but usually an insurance company will only “look back” to see if the preexisting condition was diagnosed or treated in the six months prior to enrollment.
One of the problems with the “pre-existing condition” thing though is that if you get individual health insurance, they will make you fill out a long form listing every recent time you have been to the doctor, and everything you have been diagnosed with. At that point, they can either decline to offer you coverage, or only offer you coverage with the restriction that care for one or more of your existing conditions is not part of the insurance. As I understand it, HIPPA does not override this. Thus, if you have some sort of serious medical condition, you pretty much have to get COBRA, and get a new job before it runs out, as individual insurance will either be too expensive or will not cover a serious condition. I believe some states have programs for people with serious conditions, but I’m pretty sure those are really expensive.
Related Questions
- I already have medical insurance - if I change to a new insurer will I have to start the waiting period again for pre-existing conditions to be covered?
- If I Change My Medigap Coverage will I Have a Waiting Period for Pre-Existing Conditions?
- Grace Period for Pre-Existing Conditions After Being Uninsured?
