Low rates for Texas health insurance

Texas Health Insurance

If you do not have access to employer-sponsored health coverage, you may want to buy an individual health plan from a private insurer or HMO. However, according to Texas health insurance laws - as in most other states - you have limited guaranteed access to individual health insurance in the private market. There are some alternatives to private individual health insurance coverage.

Here are some aspects you should consider if you're purchasing individual Texas health insurance:

• In general, companies that sell individual health plans in Texas are free to turn you down because of your health status and other factors. When applying for individual health coverage, you may be asked questions about health conditions you have now or had in the past. Depending on your health status, insurers and HMOs might refuse to sell you coverage or offer to sell you a health plan that has special limitations on what it covers.
  


• Persons who are federally eligible are not guaranteed the right to buy individual health coverage from private insurers and HMOs. However, they are guaranteed health coverage from the Texas Health Insurance Risk Pool.
  


• In Texas, newborns, adopted children, and children placed for adoption are automatically covered under the parents' individual health plan for the first 31 days, if the plan provides coverage for dependents or maternity benefits. The health plan may require that the parent enroll the child within the 31 days in order to continue coverage beyond the 31 days.
  


• In Texas, adult dependents with physical disabilities or mental retardation are able to stay on their parents' individual health plan after they have reached the age at which the plan usually cancels dependent coverage. In order to be eligible, the adult dependent must be incapable of self-support and must be dependent on the policyholder for support. Proof of incapacity must be provided to the health plan within 31 days of reaching the limiting age. The health plan may require that you show it proof of incapacity again in the future, but not more frequently than annually after the 2 year period following the attainment of the limiting age.