Illinois Individual Health Insurance Plans
There are different Illinois health insurance plans to choose from: Employer-sponsored group health plan, Illinois individual health insurance from private insurers, Comprehensive health insurance plan (CHIP), COBRA coverage and Conversion Policy. If you work as an employee, then you are most likely to be under an employer-sponsored group health plan. If you are leaving your company but wish to extend your stay in that group health plan, then COBRA is right for you. But if you lose a coverage which you used to have through an employers insured health plan, then you may buy a conversion policy. If you are a HIPAA eligible, you may buy your Illinois health insurance from CHIP, which is called HIPAA CHIP. But if you are an individual with no access to such group health plan, you may opt for Illinois individual health insurance plans.
In applying for Illinois individual health plans, there is a possibility that your application may be turned down. It depends on your health status, for which you will be interviewed for both old and recent health cases. In case the insurer finds conditions that may be considered as pre-existing condition, then the Illinois individual health insurance company can offer you a limited coverage instead.
In Illinois individual health insurance, a pre-existing condition is defined as a condition for which you acquire medical advice, treatment or care twenty-four months before the effective date of the coverage. It can also be a condition which showed symptoms twelve months prior to the effective date of the coverage. Commonly, pregnancy is included in the list of pre-existing conditions. However, genetic information (includes genetic tests and history of family health conditions), which doesn't seem favorable to the consumer or if the consumer has willingly provided such information to the insurer, then such case cannot be classified as a pre-existing condition. Anyone who has filed a claim for Illinois individual health plans within the first twenty-four months of the coverage will be investigated first in case the condition for which he files a claim is a pre-existing condition. If it is so, then the Illinois health insurance company can deny paying for the incurred expenses. Illinois individual health insurance companies can impose an exclusion period (span of time which the insurer can decline payment for health expenses due to pre-existing conditions) of up to twenty-four months.
Any individual under coverage of Illinois health insurance can expect his newborn to be covered by the policy (if his Illinois health plans have dependents), since first day of birth. However, it is limited to only thirty-one days. For the child to be under the policy beyond the said days, then the parent has to have the child enrolled in Illinois health plans. Like individual insurance policies in other states, a disabled child can remain covered by the parents Illinois health insurance plans only if the child remains completely dependent to due mental retardation or physical disability.
Illinois health insurance companies cannot cancel the persons coverage in any way due to injury or sickness because every individual under health plan coverage is under guaranteed renewability protection. However, Illinois health insurance premiums can be expensive, depending on the persons age, health condition, gender, dependents, etc.