As important as they are, the federal and state health insurance reforms are limited. Therefore, you also should understand how the laws do not protect you.

• If you change jobs, you usually cannot take your old health benefits with you. Except when you exercise your federal COBRA rights, you are not entitled to take your actual group health coverage with you when you leave a job. Your new health plan may not cover all of the benefits or the same doctors that your old plan did.
• Employers are not required to provide health benefits for their employees, so if you change jobs, you may find that your new employer does not offer you health coverage. Employers are required only to make sure that any health benefits they do offer do not discriminate based on health status.
• If you get a new job with health benefits, your coverage may not start right away. Employers can require waiting periods before your health benefits begin.
• If you are joining a new group health plan that is self-funded, you may have to satisfy a new pre-existing condition period if you have a break in coverage of 2 or more months. However, if you are joining a new group health plan that is fully funded, you may have to satisfy a new pre-existing condition period if you have a break in coverage of 3 or more months.
• Even if you have continuous coverage, there may be a pre-existing condition exclusion period for some benefits if you join a group health plan that covers benefits your old plan did not. For example, say you move from a group plan that does not cover prescription drugs to one that does. You may have to wait up to one year before your new health plan will pay for drugs prescribed to treat a pre-existing condition.
• If you work for a non-federal public employer in Alaska, such as such as a state or municipal government, not all of the group health plan protections may apply to you.
• In Alaska, your access to individual health insurance depends on your health status. Private insurers are not prohibited from turning you down, charging more, or limiting coverage because of pre-existing conditions. If you are HIPAA eligible, ACHIA is your only guaranteed access to individual health insurance though you may be able to buy individual health insurance from other insurance companies.
• In most cases, the law does not limit what you can be charged for individual health insurance. You can be charged substantially higher premiums because of your health status, age, gender, and other characteristics.
• If you move away from Alaska, you may not be able to buy individual health insurance in another state unless you are HIPAA eligible.