Short Term Health Insurance In Ohio

In Ohio, you have the option of purchasing short term health insurance if you need temporary coverage, usually during times of transition. Short-term health insurance does not cover pre-existing conditions, but it’s usually better than not having health insurance at all. You can obtain policies on a month-to-month basis or choose a term of up to three months. Some alumni college alumni associations in Ohio offer this type of insurance to recent graduates as well.

Short term policies do not meet Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements as compliant coverage. For this reason, policies often have much lower premiums as they are not required to provide the same types of benefits that ACA-compliant policies are required to provide. Short term plans can use medical underwriting to approve applicants, which is why pre-existing conditions are not covered, and applicants can be turned down due to their medical history. There may be annual and lifetime caps on coverage, and these policies may not cover the 10 essential benefits required of major medical plans under the ACA.

There is concern that many healthy people will choose to purchase short term health plans as their only healthcare once the individual mandate gets zeroed out starting in 2019. The Urban Institute also did a study projecting how many people would drop their major medical plans in favor of short term policies once the new Trump administration proposal takes effect expanding these policies to last up to 364 days. The institute found that nearly 21 percent of Ohio residents with ACA-compliant policies would drop those policies once short term plan limits get extended. That’s about 62,000 people.

It’s expected that longer short term plans will be available by mid-2018. Until that happens, individuals in Ohio can still purchase back-to-back 90-day short term plans. For individuals who are healthy and earn too much to qualify for subsidies, short term health insurance may help them bridge a gap between major medical insurance. However, if you purchase multiple short term plans and develop a medical condition during that time, you may need to switch to an ACA-compliant plan during open enrollment since short term policies would be likely to deny your application at that point.

It’s also important to note that deductibles would reset to zero with each new 90-day policy. This could end up being costly if your plan has a high deductible. States are still able to implement more restrictive rules regarding short term health plans. Currently, Ohio has not passed any legislation that would further restrict the sale of short term policies in the state.

Carriers Offering Short term Coverage in Ohio

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio

Golden Rule Insurance Company (UnitedHealthcare)

Medical Mutual

National General

Pivot Health Companion Life

Standard Life

Independence Holding Company (IHC Group)

 

Sources
https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/96781/2001727_0.pdf
https://www.insurance.ohio.gov/newsroom/tips/pages/healthinsurance.aspx
https://www.insurance.ohio.gov/consumer/ocs/completeguides/completehealthguide.pdf