Health Insurance And Pre-existing Conditions

There are certain limits that health insurance companies place on applicants with pre-existing medical conditions. A pre-existing medical condition is some type of medical problem that existed before you got this health insurance. Some health insurance in Texas may refuse to give you insurance at all and other companies will require a waiting period before they will begin covering your treatments.

According to the law, you cannot choose to keep any information from your insurer if it is requested when you apply for health insurance in Texas. If you are not completely honest, your insurer can cancel your policy and you may have to repay any expenses your insurance company incurred on your behalf.

Your health insurance company in Texas may consider a pre-existing condition to be one where you have received treatment and care prior to having your current health insurance plan. With health insurance in Texas, pre-existing conditions can also be determined with an individual health plan. If you have an individual plan, they will look at your medical history from the past to the present, starting five years back. If you have an employer-sponsored plan, they go back to the last six months. Other health insurance plans use the last twelve months.

By law, health insurance companies may decline to insure you on the grounds of the existence of a pre-existing medical condition. Those that choose to cover you may require a policy rider. A policy rider is a set of exclusions from the health care insurance coverage. This would mean that they would cover doctors’ visits, tests, procedures and medications for any other illness or accidents, but would not cover treatments or medications that are intended to treat the pre-existing condition. In other cases they may just require a waiting period and for most health insurance plans in Texas that waiting period is usually about two years.

Sometimes even people without a pre-existing condition have a waiting period for their health insurance in Texas to go into effect. In that case you can consider that the waiting period intended for the pre-existing medical condition starts on the first day after you applied for the insurance. If your health insurance in Texas is an HMO the waiting period should not exceed 90 days.

If you already have health insurance in Texas and you’re switching plans, then you may not have to wait as long. If there is a gap before you get new health care coverage it has to be within two months. If there are any lapses after that, you may have to wait longer to get health insurance.

If you have a pre-existing medical condition, it is vital that you understand the rules that pertain to your health insurance in Texas. You need insurance more than most people and you must be careful to protect yourself and your rights. Read the fine print on your insurance policy carefully and if you must change carriers, be sure that you completely understand their policies about pre-existing medical conditions before you cancel your current insurance, otherwise you could be stuck in the dangerous position of being without insurance.