California Health Insurance - Options For The Uninsurable

In 2008 the California HealthCare Foundation reported that 20% of Californians were uninsured. With 32.2 million people living in the golden state, this translates to about 6.6 million leaving California with the highest amount of uninsured people out of any other state.

If you think that you may be uninsurable or know that you are, it is important to realize that you do have options.

California Major Risk Medical Insurance Program

The California Major Risk Medical Insurance Program (MRMIP) is available to any uninsurable Californian regardless of health history. It is a government offered health insurance policy that is funded by tobacco taxes. Using tobacco products not only depletes your health, they deplete your bank account!

Eligibility
-You must be declined by an individual insurance carrier within 12 months of applying for MRMIP. When submitting the MRMIP application you must include the letter of declination.
-To be eligible for the MRMIP Program you must be a resident of California. If absent from the state for more than 210 consecutive days, you are not considered a resident.
-You cannot not be eligible for Medicare parts A and B, if you are denied Medicare due to having end-stage renal disease you will then be eligible for MRMIP.
-You cannot be eligible for continuation of benefits under COBRA or CalCOBRA. However, if you exhaust all COBRA and CalCOBRA benefits then you will be eligible for MRMIP if you are still uninsurable.

California Group Health Insurance

As you may be aware, there is no health underwriting for California group health insurance. If you are eligible for benefits through your employer, and you have preexisting conditions, you should take the coverage. Even if you are prescribed three medications and you have a height and weight outside of the carrier guidelines, they have to accept you. Often times we recommend that if you have a small business or California business license that you look into getting group health insurance.

Eligibility
Most of the time you will be eligible for group health with two full time employees, a 1040 schedule C (for the preceding calendar year) and one of the following:
-Business license
-DBA fictitious business statement
-Contractor's license
-Seller's permit

If you have what's called an "Owner only group," and are only enrolling a husband and wife (with or without children) you will only need one of the items listed above, an application and a proprietor/partner/corporate form.

There are many types of groups and the guidelines for each group may be different. It is important that you realize that group insurance is a valuable asset when you need coverage most. Don't forget that California group plans are just as good as regular individual and family plans and usually cover you up to 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 for the lifetime. If you have a serious preexisting condition that you think might leave you uninsurable don't hesitate to take a look at your group options.