If you are the main bread winner of your family one of your responsibilities lies in obtaining quality health insurance for you and your family. Because you never know what life is going to bring your way you can ill afford to be without health insurance. Fortunately, if you and your family live in West Virginia there are a multitude of options that you can choose from on both a group and individual basis.

The legislature that regulates what medical insurance that can be sold by providers to West Virginia Residents is known as the West Virginia Office of the Insurance Commissioner. They regulate health insurance both an individual and a group basis. Here is a further breakdown of health insurance options for residents of West Virginia and how they are regulated:

• Individual: West Virginia offers some individual HMO pans that are guaranteed issue during an annual 30 day open enrollment period, such as HMO plans with more than five years in the market or with less than 50,000 total enrollments, but regulations do allow medical underwriting in regards to individual health insurance policies. This means that a health insurance provider has the right to review any applicant's past and current medical history. Once the provider has made its inquiry and conclusions based on the information, it may then decide to insure the applicant under regular policy terms, offer to provide modified coverage using elimination riders which may eliminate some coverages due to pre-existing conditions, or totally refuse coverage based on the applicant's past or present history of health. West Virginia regulations do not make it mandatory for providers to offer credit for previous coverage held by the applicant and this results in all applicants being subjected to a 24 month look back and a 12 month exclusionary period on any and all pre-existing conditions. However, if the applicant has qualified coverage that is creditable under the Federal HIPPA regulations, then they are exempt from elimination riders and exclusionary periods. Rates for individual polices in West Virginia are banded and can therefore vary in price plus or minus 30 percent of the individual index rate.
  
  
• Small Group: If you work for an employer who has two to fifty employees then by the definition of West Virginia regulations you work for a small group employer. In 1996, the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was passed and requires that all small group employers offer their employees health insurance coverage on a guaranteed issue basis. This means that you cannot be denied coverage based on past or current medical history with little exception. While credit for prior coverage is required by state law, if an applicant had no prior coverage then they are subject to a six month look back and 12 month exclusionary period for pre-existing conditions as determined by the specific carrier or provider. Because medical underwriting is allowed with this type of coverage, it will therefore vary in rate by plus or minus 30 percent on the indexed group rate using the group as a whole to determine overall health.
  
  
• COBRA: Federal COBRA regulations call for groups of 20 or more employees to be covered by the program, but West Virginia has its own mini-COBRA plan which was enacted through Article 16 of Chapter 33 of the West Virginia Insurance Codes. This allows for groups of fewer than 20 employees to be able to stay insured for up to 18 months after their coverage has been terminated. Coverage and benefits continue under the same provider but the cost is at the sole expense of the COBRA covered employee.
  
  
• Continuation Coverage: After COBRA has been exhausted or if COBRA is not an option, you may elect to go with a conversion plan. AccessWV is the high-risk pool that is offered by the state for those who do not qualify for other coverages due to pre-existing medical conditions.

Life will sometimes throw you a curve ball or two and you must be sure that you and to your family have adequate medical coverage so that you will always be prepared for the unknown.

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