Tennessee Health Insurance

Every state in the U.S. imposes some form of regulatory control upon its resident health insurance companies, though some are more lenient than others.  Tennessee is among those states that only keep the most rudimentary restrictions in place, which means that consumers here will need to be especially observant and well-informed in order to find the kind of health coverage they want.  For this purpose we offer the following explanation of Tennessee’s most important health insurance regulations.

• One of the most helpful requirements imposed on insurers by the government of Tennessee is the guaranteed-renewability clause that must be present in every health insurance policy sold here.  This means that, as long as you’ve kept to the terms of your health insurance contract, your right to renew your coverage each time it expires cannot be denied.  Insurers are also prohibited from simply terminating your coverage whenever you start to fall ill.
• Those who bear or adopt new children in Tennessee are also assured that the new child will be covered under a parent’s health policy for up to 31 days— assuming that the aforementioned policy covers dependents, that is.
• Any health issue that you have experienced at any point before signing on to a new health policy can potentially be considered a “pre-existing condition” by your new insurer.  Such conditions are generally excluded from your health coverage for a set amount of time (up to two years) after the policy goes into effect.  Insurance companies will also sometimes implement “elimination riders” to designate certain pre-existing conditions to be permanently excluded from coverage.  Any time you’ve already spent waiting through an exclusion period will be credited toward your new coverage when you switch insurers, however.
•  The availability and cost of any health insurance sold in Tennessee is largely left uncontrolled by the state government, so you can expect insurers here to take things like your health, age, family status, occupation, and other risk factors into account when determining whether to sell you coverage, and also when calculating its cost.
• Small businesses in Tennessee that have 2 to 50 employees are automatically granted access to any group health insurance that is already being offered to other small businesses in this state.  The cost of such coverage will not necessarily be the same, however, and two companies with very different risk factors among their staff can expect to pay widely varying costs for the same coverage.
• Keeping group coverage for any small business may depend on meeting certain basic requirements, as determined by the particular insurer involved.  Common stipulations include ensuring that at least a minimum percentage of the employees participate in the company plan, or contributing a certain amount toward each employee’s individual premiums.  Failing to meet these obligations could potentially mean termination of the entire group policy.
• Self-employed residents of Tennessee only qualify for group health insurance if they have at least one other person working for them.  Those that opt for individual health coverage instead can potentially deduct a large percentage of the premiums from their tax liability.

A state like Tennessee can be a difficult place to find good health coverage due to its lax insurance regulations, but those who make an effort to stay informed still have a much better chance of succeeding here than an uninformed shopper in most other states.  Above all else, be sure to examine every offer you get carefully, and compare it to those made by competing companies.  With patience and information on your side, you stand an excellent chance of finding exactly the coverage you are looking for.

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