What are the limits on my health coverage protections as a Mississippi resident?

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 or state COBRA rights, you are not entitled to take your actual group health plan 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 when you join a new group health plan.

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 certain non-federal public employers in Mississippi, not all of the group health plan protections may apply to you.

In Mississippi, 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, MCHIRPA is your only guaranteed access to individual health insurance, though you may be able to buy an individual health insurance policy from other insurance companies.

If you join MCHIRPA and are not HIPAA eligible, you may face a pre-existing condition exclusion period.

If you move away from Mississippi, you may not be able to buy an individual health insurance policy in another state unless you are HIPAA eligible.