A Helpful Summary of Illinois Medical Insurance Terms
The Georgetown Health Policy Institute has researched a series of health insurance guidebooks that briefly describe the health insurance regulations in each individual state throughout the U.S. In developing the summary guides, a thorough review is made of a state's regulatory requirements relating to health insurance, as well as pertinent Federal requirements that apply within the United States. For completeness, local state programs made available by a state's government as the state Medicare program are analyzed and included in the guides.
Regulations concerning health care insurance are usually very complex, and many of today's state regulations are built upon the Federal legislation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (also called HIPAA). In Georgetown University's health insurance summary guides, the HIPAA regulations that address group health insurance, restrictions on pre-existing conditions, COBRA availability and long-term insurance portability are all summarized. Through diligent compliance with HIPAA regulations, a person may retain full-coverage health benefits for a long-term period after becoming disqualified from an eligible group plan. However, the timeline and qualification requirements are strongly enforced and, as a person's coverage moves farther away in time from the original group health plan, the health coverage levels and premiums will normally become less beneficial.
Because understanding both HIPAA rights and state Medicare programs will be mutually important to acquiring quality health insurance, the Georgetown insurance guides should be required early in the effort to find new health insurance. These insurance guides are updated when required by Georgetown University and its Health Policy Institute and offer a current, simple and comprehensive look at health benefits and insurance in each of the fifty U.S. states. Click on the Georgetown University link to find the current and complete Consumer's Guide to Getting and Keeping Health Insurance for the state you call home.