So I’m trying to decide whether to apply for the state high-risk pool. (We will NOT talk about any kind of federal health bill, in order to keep this from turning into a political debate.) The state plan requires either a.) having a medical condition from a list they provide (and there are a lot that should be on it, but aren’t) or b.) having been turned down for coverage by an insurance company within the last six months.
But I can’t even consider not giving up the horrible, horrible, insanely expensive insurance I have now without knowing exactly when any kind of new plan could take effect. So my question is, can you put in an application for insurance through another company (knowing for a fact that they’re not going to give it to you) while you’re still on your present plan? Does anyone know?
Might depend on your state. In WA, there is ‘guaranteed issue’ for private insurance as long as you have prior coverage. This applied when starting or ending COBRA not sure about other scenarios.
Find a local health insurance broker, they will know.
It might be the same or similar in Oregon, IF you’re talking about COBRA continuation. But that isn’t what’s going on anyway. If I go through with this, I’ll have to end up talking to one of those… (censored, so that this doesn’t turn into a rant thread!!) But it would be great if someone at least has an idea of what the situation would be.
I really don’t understand the OP’s situation. Do you have one of the medical conditions on that list? Maybe you’re trying to apply for insurance from a regular insurer simply in order to get rejected so that you’ll be eligible for the state plan? How can you be sure sure that they’ll reject you?
But as for the OP question itself…
Sure, why not? You probably wouldn’t want the new one to take effect until the day after the previous one ends, but I presume that the application can be done earlier than that day. If this were not possible, the only way to switch insurers would be by going for a short period without any coverage at all, and that would be a very bad idea.
Yes, just wanted to confirm Keeve’s affirmation that this is the standard way to switch insurers. It’s really the only responsible thing to do. You get a renewal offer and contact your broker and they quote numerous other insurers so you can see the best rate.
In fact, although quoting is not the same as applying, in practice you may get 5 quotes subject to medical underwriting. When you apply to the best plan, they review your application and double the quote due to a now disclosed preexisting condition and they’re no longer the best offer. So you go back to the drawing board.
All the while your current provider has their renewal offer waiting to automatically renew or be canceled when you decide to switch.
Oh, they’d reject me, all right. Every regular health insurance company selling private health insurance would do that. I’d bet a gazillion dollars on it right this second. Most people have no idea at all how little it takes to be considered uninsurable under private health insurance that isn’t through an employer… (NO!! I am absolutely not turning this into a rant. Not not not. Anyway, not every condition is on the OR high-risk list. With some of them, who knows why, but some are, I think, just too obscure. So few people have each individual one that they’re not listed (or the list would be about 222,000,000 pages long.) That’s the case with me.
Under the laws of the OR high-risk pool, you must either have a condition specifically on the list, or you must be rejected by an insurance company when you apply for private insurance. So yes, that would be the only point to applying.
Anyway, not every condition is on the OR high-risk list. With some of them, who knows why, but some are, I think, just too obscure. So few people have each individual one that they’re not listed (or the list would be about 222,000,000 pages long.) That’s the case with me.