A consumer’s guide to health insurance

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department has published a helpful guide about health insurance for consumers.  It defines important terms, describes various kinds of health insurance, and describes way to maintain coverage if you become uninsured (conversion policies, COBRA continuation coverage, guaranteed issuance to eligible individuals). 

When attempting to maintain coverage, the key concerns are usually (a) whether the coverage will exclude treatment for a pre-existing condition; and/or (b) whether the cost of the coverage will be out of reach because of the existence of a pre-existing condition.  Pennsylvania law provides some protection for consumers to help them avoid pre-existing exclusion periods.  It provides virtually no protection against medically underwriting, which uses an individual's medical history as the reason for increasing the cost of coverage.