Georgia Health Insurance

Georgia’s health insurance regulations can have considerable impact in any attempt to purchase health coverage here, and your first step in shopping for a new policy in this state should be to brush up on what insurers may or may not do under state law.  Below are a few of the most significant regulations affecting insurers in Georgia.

• As in most states, it is illegal for any health insurance company in Georgia to prevent you from renewing your existing coverage as long as you’ve kept up with your premiums to date.  Your insurer also cannot cancel your coverage without your specific consent, no matter what your state of health may be.
• Georgia does not impose significant restriction on health insurers’ handling of pre-existing conditions— in fact, state law does not specifically define this term.  Generally speaking, Georgia’s health insurance companies define “pre-existing conditions” as those for which you have been treated or received a diagnosis at some point in the past.  Insurers here are free to declare these ailments to be exempt from coverage by any new policy they create, and such exemptions can potentially last for any amount of time (although the standard duration is two years).
• Georgia state law does not impose much restriction on what health insurance companies may take into account when deciding the cost and availability of health coverage.  Insurers here are free to deny a policy any new applicant on the basis of health, age, location, etc. and may also set your premiums with these factors in mind.
• Those Georgia residents who already have some sort of individual health coverage that also applies to dependents can expect to have their newly-born or adopted children covered by that same policy for at least 31 days.
• By law, small businesses (those that have between 2 and 50 employees) operating in Georgia are guaranteed access to any group health insurance that is already being offered to other small businesses in this state; insurers are required to sell to any qualified company that seeks health coverage.
• Small-business health insurance in Georgia comes with a handful of important caveats: first, the insurer may set a minimum level of participation among the company’s employees, terminating coverage for the entire company if this condition is not met.  Second, the costs for this coverage can vary (within certain limits) based on the health, age, and familial status of its participants.  Fortunately, the insurer is prohibited from cancelling coverage outright based solely on the health status of the insured.
• Under certain circumstances, a self-employed person with no other employees may be able to purchase small-business health insurance.  Even if this is not available, there is usually the option of purchasing an individual health policy instead; this may even be preferable, since self-employed workers are often able to deduct a portion of their health-insurance premiums from their overall tax liability.

Because of the degree of latitude afforded to insurers operating in Georgia, it’s especially important for residents of this state to get and maintain health coverage as early in life as possible.  No matter what your situation, though, you can dramatically improve your chances of finding good insurance at reasonable rates by comparing offers from as many different insurers as possible and being well-informed about what you’re getting when you buy a new policy.

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