Having health insurance introduces you to several options for maintaining your own and your family’s health. It is basically through consultations and preventive medical screening which often times are included in the health care plan.
There are health insurance companies, however, that are not that easy to deal with especially if you have what they call pre-existing conditions. An insurance company provides services that will take care of you in the event that something bad happens. That is their job and that is why you cough up money every month to pay the health insurance premiums of your policy. But insurance companies are also private enterprises and they are businesses. They don’t just provide insurance policies to protect you, but they are in it for the profit as well. They have their own self interests to protect aside from protecting their clients.
Many insurance companies will protect themselves from anything they see as a liability. And nothing more will give them alarm bells than a client with a pre-existing health condition. It is standard among insurance companies to have specific terms that handle people with pre-existing conditions. However, the actual treatment differs from insurance companies and the kind or type of insurance coverage package they offer.
Pre-existing conditions in health insurance terminology refers to a medical condition that you already have before you applied for or before you obtained a health insurance plan. In the US, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act protects consumers with pre-existing conditions from insurance companies. Health insurance companies cannot reason out pregnancy, newborn and adopted child care as conditions for denying health coverage. They are accountable by law and can be prosecuted for their actions.
The law sets between 12 to 18 months as the time period that coverage can be denied for pre-existing conditions. This basically means for the period of 12-18 months, you will not be covered for the pre-existing condition that you might have. However, after the time period, the law requires insurance companies to cover the person for pre-existing conditions.
There are insurance companies that offer other “work around” for pre-existing conditions. They include in their policies pre-existing illness clauses which basically say the company will cover the medical bills as long as they are not for the pre-existing medical condition or relating to it. Now these kinds of insurance policies can be quite restrictive due to the relatively expensive premiums. Nevertheless, there are several techniques, tips and suggestions that will help you get a more affordable health insurance policy.
One way to get insurance is by going to state risk pool insurance plans which provide assistance to people who have been denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions. These risk pools are created by the state and should be non-profit whose one objective is to help individuals get better health coverage, especially those declared by insurance companies as “uninsurable”. Risk pools also help individuals who can only get insurance coverage from companies that demand high rates.
Aside from going to state risk pools, you should broaden your search and look for companies that offer packages that cover pre-existing conditions. Not all insurance companies are the same. Some charge larger premiums but provide meager benefits, while others offer better benefit packages. You have to take time and ask for referrals from friends to get in touch with an insurance company that provides the best coverage in your situation.
Also keep in mind that when switching policies, be aware of your new insurer’s delayed treatment provisions which basically holds coverage for a couple of months for individuals with pre-existing medical conditions. It would be better to extend the old insurance that you have for a couple of months to cover you for the months that your new insurer will not cover.
Pre-existing conditions can be quite troublesome from getting an insurance policy since there are more conditions and terms that you will have to meet to get approved. But having such a condition does not mean you will not get an insurance policy at all. It might take you some time to find the best insurer that will meet all your needs, but there’s someone out there.