Question: If new employer/new insurance provider. . .

[mgs]

My husband might want to change his job venue (he was in a multi-specialty clinic that was bought by a hospital last year - what was an enjoyable work day is now a constant headache). If he joins another group, or goes independent, we'll have an insurance provider change. With my history, will other insurance companies insure me without a "previous condition" clause for my back? I still have several years till Medicare, and obviously we don't want to put me in a bad situation when it comes to future surgical care I might need.

[LindaRacine]

I believe that group policies cannot pick and choose which employees they'll insure, so you shouldn't have any issue.

[Karen Ocker]

http://www.healthcare.gov/law/provis...ing/index.html


Linda is right. If a person transfers from one group plan to another group then pre-existing condition consideration by the insurance company does not occur. There have been problems in the past when a person allows insurance to lapse between jobs.

The above link gives the up-to-date info on the timeline of the new law --provided certain political groups don't repeal it.

I read recently, under the old system, of a lady with a mild pre-existing condition who could not buy insurance anywhere for any price--and she could afford the premiums.

[mariaf]

I agree that group policies cannot pick and choose who they cover (such as those with pre-existing conditions), except perhaps when the insurance has lapsed for a period of time.

In the time that my son was diagnosed with scoliosis - about ten years ago - we have had several different insurance carriers either due to a change of jobs or because my husband's employer switched carriers - and the subject of my son's scoliosis never even came up.

Hopefully, this will not be something you will need to worry about :-)

[mgs]

Thank you all, very much!

[mamandcrm]

For what it's worth, and every insurer is different, when my daughter was first diagnosed we were in the midst of changing from a group/corporate policy to basically an independent policy (HORROR!)--a partnership of 2 people, with families. We disclosed the scoli diagnosis on the form, and the degree, and indicated we were in the process of determining if treatment was necessary--she hadn't seen a specialist yet and we had no idea what was in store, and thankfully things have turned out well for us so far. BUT we were very worried about being declined. It passed without an eyeflutter from the insurer.