Mila Kofman, Supervisor of the Maine Bureau of Insurance and Georgetown University Professor, weighs in on one young professional’s question about choosing a health insurance plan.
He says: “my parents are all over me to get insurance (I make $47,000 a year) so I told them I’d look into it. What should I look for?”
See Kofman’s response at Qvisory.
Periodically, our experts at healthinsuranceinfo.net receive questions from consumers who are looking for guidance in the health insurance market. This question came to us recently.
Question: I am 59 years old and my wife is 54, our Cobra policy will be ending in September. Where do we go from here after our Cobra expires? Thanks for your assistance.
Answer: If you have exhausted COBRA and met other requirements, you will be ‘HIPAA eligible’ for coverage as an individual. HIPAA eligible means that all of the following are true:
Being federally eligible means that you have guaranteed access to individual health insurance coverage and will not be subject to any pre-existing condition exclusion periods.
Each state uses different methods to guarantee your access to coverage. Some states require individual health insurers to cover you while others may guarantee you high-risk pool coverage. Your state may use different options from these.
For more information about buying health insurance in your state, see our Consumer Guides to Getting and Keeping Health Insurance, available at healthinsuranceinfo.net.
Periodically, our experts at healthinsuranceinfo.net receive questions from consumers who are looking for guidance in the health insurance market. This question came to us recently.
Question: I am a 27 year old with cancer. Can I buy individual health insurance?
Answer: It depends. Insurers in the market are likely to turn you down, unless the law requires them to sell you coverage. However, depending on where you live and other circumstances, laws may require insurers to offer you an individual policy. If that is the case, it will also be important to know whether other laws limit what you can be charged for health insurance and whether your existing medical conditions will be excluded from coverage.
In a few states individual market insurers are required to guarantee issue all products to all residents year round. In these states, an application with cancer must be issued an individual policy just like everyone else.
In a handful of other states, Blue Cross/Blue Shield or other insurers must offer guaranteed issue coverage to all residents.
In addition, you will also want to get information about COBRA, state continuation coverage, state high-risk pools, association health plans, public programs (such as Medicaid), and other possible sources of health coverage.
For more information about accessing individual health insurance coverage, see our Consumer Guides to Getting and Keeping Health Insurance, available at healthinsuranceinfo.net.