Consider HIPAA instead

HIPAA - The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act - gives everyone leaving a job the right to continue health insurance as established by state guidelines whenever their COBRA period ends, or if not eligible for COBRA immediately. The purpose of HIPAA is to prevent "job lock" - being trapped in a job you hate because of family member health history problems. Now, if you quit a job, you're guaranteed a quality individual health policy regardless of health of the family members!

Evaluating options for survivors of a premature death
People have died and left their entire family uninsured because the family was covered through the deceased person's group insurance plan. Luckily, the family has a couple options:
If the surviving spouse is employed and has group coverage available, she can add herself and her kids to her group plan without proof of good health if she applies within 30 days of losing the other group coverage. If she chooses not to work outside the home indefinitely or is self- employed, we recommend the following:

· Continue coverage through COBRA, if available, but only temporarily.
· Buy an individual policy if she and the kids are healthy enough to qualify - a policy that won't end in three years, as COBRA does. If you're in this situation, buy the policy now. Your health may change and disqualify you later.
· Family members who don't qualify need to either go to a state pool for uninsurables or use COBRA for the three years and then exercise a HIPAA option for an individual policy, if that option is available.

Hip HIPAA hooray!

Before HIPAA
Bill, a bright 43-year-old engineer, is stuck in a dead-end job doing work he hates. He knows about some much better-paying jobs he would be perfect for, but he can't take them. He's stuck. Why? Because he has an 8-year-old son with an enlarged heart condition that has already required two surgeries with at least two more scheduled in the next five years. If Bill takes a new job, his son will either be turned down for coverage or the heart condition will be excluded. So Bill's hands are tied. He can't make the job change he would love to make.

After HIPAA
Bill can take the best job he can find without any insurance concerns. Since he's had continu- ous coverage for more than the past 12 months, HIPAA guarantees that he can't be turned down, nor can there be a preexisting condition applied for his son's heart. Bill is a happy camper. But suppose Bill wanted a break. He takes a six-month sabbatical between the old job and the new. How can he keep all the protection of HIPAA? Simple. He just has to elect to continue his prior group coverage, under COBRA, during the sabbatical.