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 or state continuation 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. Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) can require affiliation periods.
• 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 group health plan or CHIP.
• 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 the County of Seward and the city of Hastings, not all of the group health plan protections may apply to you.
• In Nebraska, your access to individual health insurance may depend on your health status. Individual health insurers in Nebraska can turn you down, charge you more, or limit your coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Individual health insurers can also permanently exclude coverage for your pre-existing condition. If you are HIPAA eligible, CHIP is your only guaranteed access to individual health insurance, though you may be able to buy individual coverage from other insurance companies. Some people who have problems obtaining individual health insurance may be eligible for CHIP.

Once you obtain coverage, your ability to switch plans may be limited, as well.  While you are guaranteed the right to move from an individual policy to a group plan, you are not assured the right to buy another individual policy.