Health Insurance and Pre-Existing Conditions

Many people are under the impression that they cannot buy health insurance if they have pre-existing conditions. What a pre-existing condition is will depend on the definition given by each insurance product. In most cases it is an existing condition that you had before you started the policy.

As an example, in some cases someone who has asthma may be considered to have a pre-existing condition that is not automatically covered by the insurance company. Whether this will affect your ability to get health insurance varies from state to state.

In some states premiums will be higher for pre-existing conditions and in others they will consider that morbid obesity or being not of average height as a reason to deny coverage. Generally speaking although these stations may seem biased, there are no state laws that prevent healthcare insurance companies from this type of discrimination.

Some of the most common pre-existing conditions include high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, heart disease and asthma.

In some situations you will find that the insurance company may have a waiting period before they will cover the pre-existing condition. As an example, you may have a situation where you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure and they may make you wait for six months before they would cover your healthcare for this which means you would have to pay out of pocket for it until the insurance started.

The good news is that the money you spent may go towards the deductible that your premium may require. Again, this waiting period policy will different between insurance companies and may be different state to state.

Another issue that comes into play when talking about pre-existing conditions is that if you have a group policy through your employer it cannot deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition; however, they may have the waiting period of up to six months.

What the health insurance companies look for when they are deciding on a pre-existing condition is the period of time you were last trusted for the medical condition. If you were treated within the last six months they consider it as pre-existing.

Another factor in group policies is that if you had another health insurance policy and you change within 62 days from when your last policy ended, you may still have a waiting period but it will be less than six months.

An alternative to medical insurance could be a discount plan. Many of these plans treat pre-existing conditions in the same way as they work with other conditions. Since this is not medical insurance you may be able to save substantially because the discounts usually range between 20% and 80% on many challenges.

As the costs of healthcare rises we can probably expect to see that it may become more difficult to get health insurance with a pre-existing condition because companies are afraid that this will cost them more money in the long run.

However, it is a good idea to check different policies through the Internet and compare prices on this process.

Get Free Health Insurance Quotes Now