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To find out about each state's specific requirements regarding individual health insurance policies, please see NAHU's Health Care Coverage Options Database. The database also contains contact information for the state regulators of individual health insurance policies to use if you have questions or concerns.
You may decide to join a local HMO where you pay a monthly or quarterly premium. That premium is the same whether you use the plan’s services or not. The plan may charge a copayment for certain services—for example, $10 for an office visit, or $5 for every prescription. So, if you join this HMO, you may find that you have few out-of-pocket expenses for medical care—as long as you use doctors or hospitals that participate in or are part of the HMO. Your share may be only the small copayments; generally, you will not have deductibles or coinsurance.
To help prevent adverse selection, insurance companies are allowed to look back at your medical history for pre-existing conditions and may choose not to cover certain conditions for a specified period of time. This is known as an exclusionary, or pre-existing condition, waiting period. The amount of time an insurance company can look back at your medical history, and the length of time an exclusionary period can last, vary on a state-by-state basis. NAHU's Health Care Coverage Options Database will tell you what the requirements are in your state.
Health insurance policies frequently exclude coverage for preexisting conditions, but, as explained, federal law now limits exclusions based on such conditions.
The three major types of managed care plans are health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and point-of-service (POS) plans. Managed care plans generally provide comprehensive health services to their members, and offer financial incentives for patients to use the providers who belong to the plan. In managed care plans, instead of paying separately for each service that you receive, your coverage is paid in advance. This is called prepaid care.
Some policies allow the maximum to be restored if the insured can prove that he is once again insurable. Other policies may have an automatic reset provision restoring a specified amount every January 1st.
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