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 their decision is based on factors unrelated to your 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. HMOs can require affiliation periods in the large group market.
• If you have a break in coverage of 63 days or more before your large group coverage begins, or a break more than 90 days before your small group coverage begins, you may have to satisfy a new pre-existing condition exclusion period when you join a new health plan.
• Even if your coverage is continuous, 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 New Jersey, not all of the group health plan protections may apply to you.
• If you buy a Basic and Essential plan from an individual insurer, it may not cover all of your medical needs. Unlike, other all other individual health insurance policies sold in New Jersey, the Basic and Essential plan is not required to cover all of the services that some consumers have come to expect in an individual policy. In addition, if you buy a Basic and Essential plan, your premiums can vary based on your age, gender and where you live.
• Unless you are HIPAA eligible, if you have a break in coverage of more than 31 days before your new individual health insurance policy becomes effective, you may have to satisfy a new pre-existing condition exclusion period.
• If you move away from New Jersey, you may not be able to buy individual health insurance in another state unless you are HIPAA eligible.