Short Term Medical Insurance For Special Situations

Short term medical insurance is available to most people in the United States, but there are some important exceptions and limitations.  In those cases it helps to focus on one specific type or brand of health insurance plan in order to assure eligibility.

Significant Medical History - Short term medical insurance is not appropriate if you have a recent history of serious illness, insulin-dependent diabetes, cancer, HIV or are pregnant.  None of these insurance policies cover the cost of treating pre-existing medical conditions. 

For medical conditions that are not likely to require immediate treatment, short term medical insurance may help "pave the way" toward eligibility of other individual and group insurance.  All short term medical insurance plans provide a "Certificate of Continued Coverage" that provides protection under the federal law known as HIPAA.

If you need insurance to cover pre-existing medical conditions, contact your state's assigned risk plan mandated by HIPAA law and usually available through the Blue Cross / Blue Shield Association or your state's insurance department.  Blue Cross issues both short term and permanent coverage; the HIPAA plans are all permanent type coverage.  Links to all are available on each state page at http://www.lvhealthins.com , but OnlineAdviser does not support these enrollments.  Blue Cross enrollments are supported by the member service personnel at each of these independent companies.  Enrollment support is provided by telephone and mail; Internet-based pricing and enrollment is not available for HIPAA plans.

Individuals with significant medical history may also want to consider a Short Term Medical Insurance Plan plan insured by Markel Insurance that accepts all applicants under age 70 regardless of medical history.  This insurance is designed as a supplemental coverage that helps pay the co-pays and deductibles left by primary health insurance.  This is a month-to-month insurance that can be used for either a short term or long term basis.  (There is no need to cancel this insurance when replacing other insurance since benefits are paid in addition to other coverage).

State of Residence - Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont residents can not buy short-term medical insurance in their home state.  Since there is no requirement that the policy be issued to the primary residence, it is possible to use a temporary residential address.  For example, students commonly use a school address or vacation residence as the address of record for this policy.  Regardless of the state of issue, this health insurance is equally valid in all 50 states.

Non-US citizens -  Long term visitors, students and workers on a H-1 visa should avoid the American Health Shield policy that is only available to US citizens.  Any other short term medical insurance will be issued to non-citizen U.S. residents.

Previously declined for coverage - Applicants who have previously been declined for other health insurance are subsequently not eligible for most individual health insurance plans.  The exception is Celtic Health Insurance STM plan that does not ask about previous declines so this is the obvious choice in this situation.  At Insurance Advisors we offer Celtic Short Term Medical Insurance.

Diabetic - Most plans exclude all applicants with a previous diabetes diagnosis regardless of current treatment.

High blood pressure or cholesterol - Most Texas Health Insurance Plans do not ask about high blood pressure or lab tests.  Those taking medications to control high blood pressure or cholesterol should consider adding a prescription drug discount card to their short term health insurance policy.  (See the note below).

Overweight - If an applicant is overweight STM will not cover any conditions related to obesity. 

Already Taking Prescription Drugs - Remember that all short term medical insurance excludes pre-existing prescriptions under the base policy.  Some policies include a discount drug card that can be used with pre-existing medical conditions or current prescriptions.  These cards do not cover the whole bill but typically save 20% to 25% of the cash price.  If you are taking an expensive prescription now, consider adding the best available discount drug card available as an option on the Short Term Medical policy you purchase from Insurance Advisors.  These cards are available with all Short Term Medical policies offered by Insurance Advisors.

Need immediate ID card - All of our Short Term Texas Health Insurance Plans offer the ability to print an ID card and a copy of the actual issued policy immediately after an online enrollment. 

Coverage in another State - All Short Term Medical plans purchased from Insurance Advisors are valid in every state in the United States.  We have some health plans that are region and state specific.  We have Texas Health Insurance Plans, Las Vegas Health Insurance Plans and Dallas Health Insurance Plans that are valid only in that region but these plans are easily distinguished from plans that are valid throughout the United States.  If a region specific plan is purchased through Insurance Advisors the client will be made aware of the plans boundries many times throughout the purchase process.

1-800-479-8075 Office  866-572-6137 Fax

Coverage in another Country - Most short-term medical insurance plans provide coverage only in North America.  We at Insurance Advisors also offer International Travel Insurance through Assurant Health