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.

• Even with the new reforms requiring all Massachusetts residents to have qualified health insurance, you may still face barriers to buying coverage. All residents now have access to some type of health insurance coverage; however, if you are not eligible for state subsidized coverage or other public programs, health insurance coverage may not be affordable. In addition, if you fail to obtain and maintain qualifying coverage, you may face a tax penalty.
• If you change jobs, you usually cannot take your old health benefits with you. Except when you exercise your federal COBRA or state continuation 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.
• If you change jobs, your new employer may not offer you health benefits. 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 have a break in coverage of 63 days or more, you may have to satisfy a new pre-existing condition exclusion period or waiting period when you join a new health plan. If you had some prior health coverage, you may not have to satisfy the entire pre-existing condition exclusion period.
• Even if your coverage is continuous, there may be a pre-existing condition exclusion period for some benefits if you join a 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 Massachusetts, not all of the group health plan protections may apply to you.
• If you move away from Massachusetts, you may not be able to buy individual health insurance in another state unless you are HIPAA eligible.