What Factors Affect Tennessee Individual Health Insurance?
When looking for individual health insurance plans, several key factors should be taken into account before selecting a final policy. There are the differences between HMO and PPO categories of plans, the level of out of pocket expenses (deductibles and co-pays), and the financial stability of the insurance company to consider. But, possibly, the most important factor to modify your coverage is the insurance company's procedures on the medical underwriting of applicants.
The medical underwriting requirement for individual health care policies is somewhat different from the procedures of group health insurance programs. In accordance with the law, in a group insurance plan, there should be no discrimination in benefits offered to any individual group member based on that member's individual health status. In contrast, for individual insurance plans, discrimination as a result of the health status of the person is a routine practice today and is completely legal! If a new applicant for an individual health benefits plan has an existing medical condition, the insurance company may refuse coverage to the person or to offer only coverage that excludes the disability or condition.
This practice occurs because of the necessary medical underwriting of each individual insurance policy which is applied to new policies purchased in the open marketplace. What the concept of medical underwriting really means is that the health insurance company is analyzing the likely financial risk likely to arise from the new policy based on the health status of the applicant. When applying for new health coverage, consumers should call the medical underwriting organization in the health insurance company first to find out how they deal with various medical issues.