Arizona short term health insurance policies
Arizona short-term health insurance plans offer health insurance for a limited period of time ranging from one month to three years. Typically, those interested in short-term coverage are those that are reasonably healthy and want to avoid the staggering premium rates of an ACA individual policy, assuming that they do not qualify for a subsidy.
We offer AZ residents short-term medical insurance plans provided by Pivot short-term health insurance and IHC short-term. The main difference between the two is that Pivot offers coverage up to $1 million and IHC offers up to $2 million. When it comes to health insurance more is always better, but between the two companies there is a plan for every budget.
It is important to note that Arizona short-term health insurance is not ACA qualified coverage. There is a reason why it is approximately half the cost of an ACA individual plan, mainly because short-term policies cover no pre-existing conditions present within the last five years. Short-term plans do not cover maternity or mental health issues. Some short-term plans cover preventive services, though most do not. It is important to read the exclusions page of each plan and speak with your broker. All this said, AZ short-term policies are an excellent alternative to ACA plans in many cases… but not all.
If you do not require regular medical attention and are not taking expensive prescriptions a short-term policy may be for you. These plans are designed for those that want to protect themselves against the unknown. We all have a pre-existing condition or two and having certain pre-existing conditions will not disqualify you from obtaining a short-term policy, but those medical conditions will not be covered. As an example, someone with controlled high blood pressure can obtain coverage, but the office visits scheduled to update the prescription for this specific condition would not be covered. This individual can separately purchase prescription coverage if they like.
If you are deciding whether to enroll in a COBRA plan recently offered to you through an employer or purchase a short-term plan, please be aware that if you purchase the short-term plan, you lose the right to enroll in COBRA.
It is almost always recommended that you purchase short-term health insurance for the full three years, even if you don’t think you will keep it that long. These policies may be cancelled at any time. The benefit of locking in coverage for three years is that any covered medical condition that occurs in the first year of coverage will be covered in the following two years. If you purchase a one-year policy and something serious occurs during the year, the carrier won’t sell you another policy after the first expires because you will then have a serious pre-existing condition. For those that are certain that they only need coverage for a few months there is no need to lock in coverage for a longer period of time.