Maryland Health Insurance Options

While some states’ insurance laws tend to better benefit the individual, Maryland health insurance regulations tend to better protect insurance companies. There are many different rules of which you should be aware when you are applying for policies and deciding on the Maryland health insurance company that is right for you. Rather than blindly signing a Maryland health insurance policy contract, it is best to investigate all of your options before you commit to a coverage plan.

All Maryland health insurance policies must be guaranteed to be renewable. This means that your Maryland health insurance plan cannot be canceled at the end of your term due to the onset of an illness or your filing a lot of claims during the previous year. Every Maryland health insurance policyholder has the right to renew his or her policy at then end of each term regardless of his or her health status or age as long as he or she has paid the premiums in accordance with the original contract.

Maryland health insurance law has extremely lenient pre-existing condition guidelines for Maryland health insurance companies. This is not beneficial for the Maryland health insurance policyholder. By law in the Maryland health insurance world, a pre-existing condition is defined as any illness with which you were diagnosed or for which you received treatment within the seven years prior to obtaining your new Maryland health insurance policy. This pre-existing condition period is much longer than that allowed most states’. Some states define pre-existing condition periods in terms of no longer than six months.

A Maryland health insurance company can impose a pre-existing condition exclusion period during which it will not pay claims relating to the pre-existing conditions. These exclusion periods cannot be more than two years long, and HMO Maryland health insurance plans are not allowed to impose exclusion periods at all. In addition to exclusion periods, Maryland health insurance companies can also write elimination riders into their coverage plan contracts. This means that the Maryland health insurance company will not pay for a pre-existing condition claim for the entire life of the Maryland health insurance policy. This permanent refusal to pay can cause many problems for an individual suffering from a chronic illness. It is important for a Maryland health insurance applicant to thoroughly check proposed contracts for elimination riders before signing any agreements.

In addition to these Maryland health insurance company-biased laws, there are also Maryland health insurance regulations that are meant to help the individual. Maryland health insurance companies are required to cover newborns and adopted dependents during their first thirty-one days. There is also a Maryland health insurance organization that offers insurance policies to high-risk individuals. SAAC is an agency devoted to providing Maryland health insurance policies to those who have been denied by private insurance companies or who have been offered policies with elimination riders that remove the company’s obligation to pay pre-existing conditions. SAAC coverage is available to people suffering from a variety of illnesses, like cancer or AIDS, that make it virtually impossible to obtain adequate Maryland health insurance from private insurance providers.

Maryland Health Insurance Options

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