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 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. (see Group Health Plans)

· Employers are not required to provide health benefits for their employees, so if you change jobs, you may find that your new employer does 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 Group Health Plans)

· If you get a new job with health benefits, your coverage may not start right away. Employers can impose waiting periods before your health benefits begin. HMOs can impose affiliation periods. (see Group Health Plans)

· 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 health plan. (see Group Health Plans for Group Coverage, Individual Health Plans for Individual Coverage)

· Even if your coverage is continuous, there may be a pre-existing condition exclusion period for some benefits if you join a self-insured 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 six months or one year before your new health plan will pay for drugs prescribed to treat a pre-existing condition. (see Group Health Plans)

· If you work for certain non-federal public employers in Oregon, not all of the group health plan protections may apply to you. (see Group Health Plans)

· Individual health insurers in Oregon are free to turn you down because of your health status and other factors, unless you are buying a portability policy. If you obtain an individual health insurance policy, your ability to switch plans may be limited as well. (see Individual Health Plans)