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 or your special continuation rights in the Alliance, 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 (see page 6).
• 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 (see page 7).
• 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 or the Alliance (see page 29).
• 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 certain 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 (see page 10).
• If you work for certain non-federal public employers in New Mexico, not all of the group health plan protections may apply to you (see page 10).
• In New Mexico, your access to individual health insurance may depend on your health status. Individual health insurers are not prohibited from turning you down, charging more, or limiting coverage because of pre-existing conditions (see page 12).
• If you are HIPAA eligible, NMMIP and the Alliance are your only guaranteed access to individual health insurance though you may be able to buy individual health insurance from other insurance companies. Some people who have problems obtaining individual health insurance may be eligible for NMMIP (see Chapter 3).
• If you purchase health insurance from NMMIP and are not HIPAA eligible, then you may have to face a new pre-existing condition exclusion period (see pages 24).