HEALTH INSURANCE ALERT- Children’s policies guaranteed issue until March 1st

[WESH]

If you or someone you know has a child under the age of 19 who has been denied health insurance coverage due to a pre-existing condition, then now is the time to re-apply!
One of the major features of the new Health Care Reform law is that insurance companies may no longer deny coverage to children under 19 i.e. policies are ‘Guaranteed Issue’ (GI). However, insurance companies are allowed to stipulate at what times during the year the will offer these GI policies, and for most carriers, this year’s initial enrollment period ends March 1^st.

Subsequent to this initial enrollment period, GI policies for children under 19 will also be available during the child’s birth month, as well as due to the following Qualifying Events (at the time of this writing it is unknown if all insurance companies will offer policies due to these Qualifying Events):

Birth or adoption of a child;
Loss of group coverage;
Loss of an employer's contribution toward an employee or dependents' coverage;
Loss of coverage because of a legal separation, divorce, or death of the person through whom the child was covered as a dependent;
Loss of coverage under the Healthy Families Program, the Access for Infants and Mother’s Program, or the MediCal Program;
The child becomes a California resident;
Coverage is mandated by a state or federal court order;


Please note that insurance companies reserve the right to charge a higher than ’standard’ premium for these GI policies based on the health history of the child, as they do with all health insurance policies.


If you have any questions, give me a call at 829-2328.

Bill Hannant is an independent insurance broker
and Waccoteer in Sebastopol .