News Release
How Long Can I use Short Term Medical Insurance?
2/8/08 - The average length of any health insurance policy purchased for an individual or family is a year or less. Yet more people are looking for longer term coverage for extended periods between jobs, while starting a business or while waiting for other coverage like Medicare to become available.
Policies are generally issued with maximum lengths of 6 months, 12 months or 36 months. In general, you may re-enroll for one short term medical insurance policy after another in order to obtain longer overall periods of coverage. Some states, however, have specific laws to deter the continued reliance on short term medical insurance. Since short term medical insurance does not include benefits for normal maternity or coverage for pre-existing conditions, short term medical insurance is not suitable for people who are likely to have significant medical treatment for chronic medical issues.
California residents may have up to 185 consecutive days of coverage with one insurance company and then must have a break of 62 days without coverage or with a different insurance company before being eligible for coverage with the same insurance company. The total period of coverage with one insurance company is 370 days.
Colorado
residents may be covered by no more than 2 of the same short term
medical policies within a 12 month period.
Idaho residents can re-apply for the same insurance only after a 63 day
break in coverage without any insurance or with insurance from a
different insurance company.
Maryland residents can be covered by short term medical insurance for a
maximum of 12 consecutive months. Then a break in coverage either
without any insurance or with insurance from a different insurance
company is required before re-applying with the same insurance company.
Michigan residents can be covered for 185 out of the last 365 days. If covered for 181 consecutive days, a break in coverage of 181 days without any insurance or with a insurance from different insurance company is required before being eligible for coverage under the same insurance company.
Minnesota residents cannot apply to the same insurance company after they have been covered for a total of 185 days.
New Hampshire residents cannot reapply for short term medical insurance if they have been covered by three or more short term medical insurance policies within the past twelve months.
North Dakota residents can re-apply with the same company only after there has been a 30 day break in coverage either without any insurance or with coverage from a different insurance company.
All States: The brand of insurance called "American Health Shield"
and some short term medical policies issued by
Blue Shield limit eligibility to a maximum of 12 consecutive months
regardless of state of residence.
If you face one of these state law limitations, the answer is simply to switch
the type of insurance or the insurance company. Alternates are listed on
a state-by-state basis at MedSave.com. There are usually several types
of low cost health insurance available in each state, so simply change
policies to comply with the eligibility requirements.
Note that each consecutive policy has its own deductible and all short term health insurance policies exclude coverage for pre-existing medical conditions. In other words, short term health insurance is a great deal for covering problems that might happen in the future, but not useful for paying for medical care for problems that already happened in the past.