Health insurers are no longer able to discriminate against individuals or their children due to pre-existing health conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, or pregnancy. Nor can they limit the benefits of those conditions. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) prohibits health insurance companies from refusing to cover someone or charging them more because of a pre-existing condition. This applies to both men and women. A pre-existing condition is a health issue that existed before someone applied for a health insurance policy or enrolled in a new health plan.
The ACA has put an end to this practice, but there are some exceptions, such as acquired rights policies and certain non-traditional health plans. The Inflation Reduction Act extended the ACA's provisions until 2025, making it easier for people to find affordable coverage in the market. It's estimated that between 50 and 129 million non-elderly Americans have at least one pre-existing condition that would make it difficult for them to access health care and health insurance without the ACA's protections. Before the ACA was passed, health insurers could increase prices and deny coverage to people who had already been diagnosed with a problem, were pregnant, or had risk factors such as high blood pressure before their coverage began. The ACA prohibits this practice and also prevents insurers from charging women more than men. Greg's family had pre-existing conditions, but his health plan was unable to impose a period of exclusion for them due to the ACA. If you were taking out insurance at work, depending on your employer and the health plans offered, you may have had a pre-existing period of exclusion. Given insurers' incentives to exclude people with pre-existing conditions from individual insurance in most states, it's not surprising that the proportion of people enrolled with health problems in this market tends to be lower than in other markets.
However, regardless of availability, short-term health insurance is not a minimum essential coverage and generally does not provide coverage for pre-existing conditions. The ACA also supplements the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA), which prevents discrimination by most health insurance plans and employers based on genetic information, such as an inherited genetic mutation associated with an increased risk of cancer. The ACA Marketplace offers subsidies that can help make plans sold through government health insurance exchanges more affordable. To understand your options, you can compare private health insurance quotes with the coverage, prices, and subsidies offered through the government marketplace.
