Finding Private Health Insurance With A Pre-Existing Condition
Have you ever been rejected for health insurance because they said you had a pre-existing condition? Have you received a notice that your policy is being cancelled because you lied on your application? Have you ever applied for a health insurance plan and been accepted subject to a specific exclusion based on prior medical history? All of these things happen to people on a regular basis and, unfortunately, the burden of proof always seems to be with the insured.
Health insurance companies often claim that an insured had a pre-existing condition when something becomes known at the beginning of a policy. All claims for this condition will be denied and, as the insured, you will have to obtain statements from your previous doctors that you were never aware of this condition. You will then need to appeal this decision and hope that you are found to be innocent of attempting to defraud the insurance company.
Medical insurance companies have these policies in place, unfortunately, because there have been many instances of individuals lying on their application, or purposely withholding medical records, in order to acquire medical insurance with a less expensive premium. In order to reduce expenses, and therefore keep the costs down for everyone else they are providing insurance to, the medical insurance companies must respond this way if the circumstances surrounding a serious medical condition seem suspicious. Again, it is up to the individual in these scenarios to obtain all of the relevant medical documentation to prove that there was no pre-existing condition, and that they were not lying on the insurance application form.
Prior medical history can sometimes lead to an exclusion of certain coverages in a health insurance plan. I know of someone who had visited a chiropractor for thirty years, receiving regular maintenance spinal adjustments. The word “surgery” was never even mentioned, yet, the health insurance company felt that it was a possibility, no matter how remote, and chose to exclude all spinal issues from the policy. This meant that if the patient was involved in an automobile accident and injured his spinal chord, there would be no coverage, even though it did not relate at all to the spinal history.
Luckily this individual was able to get medical insurance that did not exclude back procedures or surgeries, a few years later. Because the medical insurance company changed their policy the exclusions were removed, but there is nothing to say that the insurance company won’t change their guidelines again in the future, and deny coverage altogether. If you have a pre-existing condition, be sure to thoroughly research how that condition will affect your coverage if you need to acquire new medical insurance.
When shopping for self employed insurance you will want to be sure to compare health insurance plans that you have obtained. This can be done in minutes if you go to www.healthinsuranceplace.com.
