Individual and Family Health Insurance in Colorado

The state of Colorado does not require health insurance providers to offer their individual or family health insurance plans on a guaranteed issue basis, this means that insurance companies have the option to decline your Colorado Health Insurance application based on your past medical history or current medical conditions. All Colorado health insurance plans benefits vary offering many different levels of coverage, be sure to compare plans side-by-side to help determine which would be the best Colorado health insurance plan to meet your needs.

There are certain benefits that the state of Colorado mandates must be included in all health insurance plans, such as mammograms and prostate cancer screening.

During the underwriting process, health insurance providers in Colorado may choose one of the following responses to your application;

1) they may decline coverage because of information provided in your medical insurance application,
2) they may offer to you health insurance coverage, but with limits on pre-existing medical conditions or
3) they may approve your application for full health insurance coverage as submitted in your application. Premium rates may vary depending upon the age of the applicant and geographical area.

If the insurance company accepts your application, the insurance policy is required to recognize creditable coverage from a prior medical insurance plan and apply this to the 12 month pre-existing exclusionary period, as long as there is no waiver written into the policy that address that specific pre-existing medical condition.

Colorado Small Group Medical Insurance

In the state of Colorado, a small employer group is defined as any business with 1-50 employees. Small group medical insurance in Colorado is issued on a guaranteed issue basis for groups of 2-50. Groups of 1 have access to guaranteed issue coverage just one time each year, during an open enrollment period. One person groups are only eligible for this guaranteed issue basic health insurance plan if they have involuntarily lost other medical insurance coverage.

When you begin your employment, your employer may require you to wait for a period of time before you can join the employer group health plan in Colorado. Once you have completed this waiting period you become eligible to join the plan, your health insurance coverage is guaranteed and the insurance company cannot decline to insure you or alter the coverage in any way because of your past medical history.

If during the previous six month period you have gone without continuous medical insurance, a waiting period for coverage of pre-existing conditions may apply. Some HMO's in Colorado may require a waiting period, also referred to as an HMO affiliation period. Applicants will not be able to get health insurance coverage during the HMO affiliation or waiting period, however they should not have to pay any premium charges either.

The HMO waiting period should not exceed 8 weeks, except in cases of late enrollment. Small group Health insurance rates in Colorado can be adjusted based on smoking, claims and medical history, but cannot increased by more than 10% of their published standard rates.

COBRA Health Insurance in Colorado Information

Employers with more than 20 employees are required by law to adhere to federal COBRA regulations that require the employer to allow an employee who is leaving the employment of the company, to remain on the company's group health insurance plan for a minimum of 18 months. In some situations, some people are entitled to 36 months of continued COBRA health insurance coverage in Colorado, under federal law.

Small employers with less than 20 employees must adhere to the same rules under, Colorado's mini-COBRA regulations. Anyone who has exhausted their COBRA health insurance coverage in Colorado, guaranteed issue coverage is available under federal HIPAA regulations through the Colorado state high risk pool, CoverColorado.