Can I be denied from getting a new insurance plan that the company I work for offers, even though they use the same health insurance company that I currently have because of my diabetes? I’m scarred to switch and run the risk of not being accepted or being covered. Will I be dropped from or loose my retired husbands work health insurance plan I’ve been on for 25 years? I’m scarred to do it and am afraid to ruin what I have to save some money. Does anyone have advice or been thru something similar to this. Your opinion would be valued. Thank you.
Will Diabetes 2 Be Considered A Pre Existing Condition If Switching Health Insurance Plans? ?
September 18th, 2009 § Tags: Condition, Diabetes, Health, Insurance, Plans Posted in Insurance § § 9 comments
Not if it is the same insurance company. You already have your coverage with them. The place that I work for switched ins. a few years back, and nothing changed for me as far as coverage and they did not give me a waiting period or anything. They just continued to cover my diabetes right away. You will have to ask someone at the company who knows.
If you are currently covered by the same insurance company, just switching to your employer will not change your status with the insurance. Now if it was a new insurance company, then yeah, they could call it a pre-existing condition and make you wait a year before they would cover it. But with the same insurance company, just a different payor, it should not be an issue.
You can be sure, simply by calling your insurance company, tell them the situation, and simply ask if changing the payor would cause a problem with your coverage. It shouldn’t.
If you are in the US and have had no laps in coverage and you are in a group plan (employer plan), you can’t be denied coverage because you are a Diabetic. Yes, for insurance purposes, its a preexisting condition but group plans have different laws governing them. Even if you changed employers, you would need to keep your COBRA coverage in place until your new employers’ coverage kicked in but you wouldn’t be denied.
Talk to your HR department or ask them for the group plan insurance administrator. Our company purchases our health insurance through an industry group and they have people we can talk to who aren’t employees of our own company and they are prevented from sharing that information with our employer in case you don’t want your company to know. They are very helpful and know the laws.
Legally, people can no longer be denied for diabetes. However, this will NOT prevent them from drastically raising your premiums. I lost my employer health care coverage, paying about $200 a month. The cheapest I could get (for an otherwise healthy male in this 20s) was $792 per month.
My advice is that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The extra aggravation and worry with switching health plans is rarely worth it. The best part is that because of the diabetes, your provider is not allowed to drop you as long as you continue to make regular payments. In addition, they are not allowed to recalculate your rate outside of normal inflation. You have a seemingly stable plan.
I think they would consider it a pre existing condition, primarily because of the potential complications related to diabetes that could finish up costing them a small fortune.
A new plan can have boundaries set, and they may exclude diabetic treatment from the policy.
Why don’t you just stay with the plan you have? I would – if an insurance company can wiggle out of anything, they will.
It can be, BUT I seem to recall that there is a federal law mandating that IF you are already coverd by an insurance plan, the new plan must accept you. It’s when a plan lapses that you may have trouble picking it up again.
I’m not totally sure about that, though. Since you’re not switching companies, check with your HR department, or call the State Board of Insurance.
Usually as long as there is NO lapse in coverage when switching from one insurance co to another, there is NO pre-existing condition limitations. You should check on this specifically before you switch.
Yes, it is a pre-existing condition. If you go straight from one insurance coverage to another pre-existing conditions are generally covered.
It is a pre existing condition. And they shouldn’t denie u at all.