Many Americans have health-related problems that insurance companies define as pre-existing conditions. A pre-existing condition is a health problem that existed before you apply for a health insurance policy or enroll in a new health plan.
Insurance companies and health plans are concerned about their financial bottom line – it’s in their best interest, therefore, to exclude people with a pre-existing condition, impose a waiting period before coverage starts, or charge higher premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.
A pre-existing condition can be something as common and as serious as heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and asthma – chronic health problems that affect a large portion of the population. Even if you have a relatively minor condition such as hay fever or a previous accidental injury, a health plan can deny coverage.
The Pre-Existing Condition Exclusion
A pre-existing condition can affect your health insurance coverage. If you are applying for insurance, some health insurance companies may accept you conditionally by providing a pre-existing condition exclusion period.
Although the health plan has accepted you and you are paying your monthly premiums, you may not have coverage for any care or services related to your pre-existing condition. Depending on the policy and your state’s insurance regulations, this exclusion period can range from six to 18 months.
For example: Lori S. is a 48 year old woman who works as a freelance writer. She has high blood pressure that is well controlled on two medications. She recently decided to purchase her own health insurance that included drug coverage. The only affordable health plan she could find had a 12-month exclusion period for her high blood pressure. For the first 12 months of her policy, all of her claims (including doctor visits and medications) related to her high blood pressure were denied. However, within that first year of coverage, she also got the flu and a urinary tract infection – both of which were completely covered because they were not pre-existing conditions.
If you are getting insurance at your job, depending on your employer and the health plans offered, you may have a pre-existing exclusion period. However, the exclusion period is limited to 12 months (18 months if you enrolled late in the health plan) and only applies to health conditions for which you sought treatment in the 6 months before you enrolled in the health plan.
For example: Mike J., a 34 year old man, recently got a new job after being unemployed for almost a year. His new company allows employees to participate in its health plan at the end of the first pay period. Mike has mild asthma and sustained a knee injury playing basketball when he was in his twenties. In the six months prior to the time he enrolled in his employer’s health plan, he had no doctor visits and did not take any medication. He was not subject, therefore, to any exclusion period for his pre-existing conditions. Shortly after he started working, his asthma worsened – he was fully covered for all of his asthma-related care.
HIPPA and Creditable Coverage
In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a law that provides some protection for you and your family members when you need to buy, change, or continue your health insurance. These protections include:
- Limits on the use of pre-existing condition exclusions.
- Prevents many health plans from discriminating against you by denying you coverage or charging you more for coverage based on your or a family member's health problems.
- Most of the time guarantees that if you lose your job and your coverage, you have the right to purchase health insurance for you and your family.
- Usually guarantees that if you purchase health insurance, you can renew your coverage regardless of any health conditions in your family.
Although HIPPA does not apply in all situations, the law may decrease your chance of losing your existing coverage, make it easier for you to switch health plans, and help you buy coverage if you lose your job-related health plan and have no other coverage available.
An important feature of HIPPA is known as “creditable coverage.”
Creditable coverage is health insurance coverage you had before you enrolled in your new health plan, as long as it was not interrupted by a period of 63 or more days. The amount of time you had “credible” health insurance coverage can be used to offset a pre-existing condition exclusion period in your new health plan.
The bottom line: If you had at least a full year of health coverage at your previous job and you enrolled in your new health plan without a break of 63 days or more, your new health plan cannot subject you to the pre-existing condition exclusion.
For example: Marion B. worked for an office supply company for three years and participated in her company’s PPO health plan. When the company went out of business, Marion lost her job and her health insurance. She decided not to purchase health insurance because of the cost and was able to find a new job with health coverage four months later. Because she had no health coverage for more than 63 days, her new health plan was able to impose a pre-existing condition exclusion period. Marion’s new plan denied coverage for 12 months for all care related to her high blood pressure.
For example: Greg L. decided to change jobs for better promotion opportunities. He worked with a recruiter and found a new job, which he started four weeks after resigning from his previous position. His new job offered similar health insurance and he enrolled in a family point-of-service plan. Although Greg is in good health, his wife has type 2 diabetes and one of his children has asthma.
Greg had worked for his previous company for two years and had no health insurance coverage for four weeks (less than 63 days). In spite of pre-existing health conditions in his family, Greg’s health plan was not able to impose a pre-existing condition exclusion period.
