State to state health insurance transfer
originally posted: 11/22/2006 reposted: 2/18/2011 This post has not been recently reviewed or revised by the author and may be out of date. If in doubt, please send a new question or ask for an update.
Q: If I currently have insurance in my home state, but am considering moving to a different state, is there a way to find out whether they will cover me (I have rheumatoid arthritis) without actually living in that state? I've tried a few times to find this out, but was always stonewalled and was told this was an underwriting procedure and that I would have to have a physical address in the new state before I could find this out. Is this true? Is there a way around it? Also, if I apply somewhere and get turned down (assuming I can apply somehow), does that go on my record for years, despite the fact that I still have my current insurance?
A: Moving to another state does not necessarily change your health insurance unless the insurer does not provide benefits there. Most people simply keep the same insurance company and simply make a seamless transition to the policy form that is appropriate for the new state of residence. All of the health policies issued online that are supported by OnlineAdviser provide national coverage that is not affected by a state-to-state move. If you do change insurance companies, your coverage for pre-existing medical conditions will be affected and will be partly dependant on the laws of your new state of residence. See the article "Finding Health Insurance to Cover Pre-existing Conditions" for a full discussion of the options.
Summary
More resources:
Finding Health Insurance to Cover Pre-existing Conditions
FreedomBenefits.net