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 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.
• 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, a new group health plan may apply a universal waiting period for coverage of certain benefits unrelated to pre-existing conditions.
• 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 certain benefits your old plan did not. For example, say you move from a group plan that does not cover prescription drugs to a self-insured group health plan 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 Washington, not all of the group health plan protections may apply to you.
• Your ability to buy individual health insurance in Washington may depend on your health status.. Insurance companies in the individual market in Washington can turn you down if you are sick. Insurers must use a standardized health screen to determine who can and cannot be turned down for an individual health insurance policy based on health status. You can review these guidelines at any time to find out whether you are healthy enough to buy individual health insurance.
• If you have been uninsured for more than 63 days before the date of application for individual health insurance, you may face a 9-month pre-existing condition exclusion period.
• If you are self-employed with no other workers, you are not eligible to buy a group health insurance policy on your own. Therefore the laws that protect employer’s access to group health plans do not apply to you. Your access to health insurance is protected by the laws that apply to individuals.
• If you move away from Washington, you may not be able to buy individual health insurance in another state unless you are HIPAA eligible (see healthinsuranceinfo.net).