Get Free Health Insurance Quotes!

Group California Health Insurance

 

Group California health insurance can be a blessing and a nice benefit that comes with your employment. While it may seem secondary to your compensation, you should still understand your group health insurance coverage in order to compare it to individual health insurance.

 

Take a moment to read over this overview of group California health insurance.

 

Advantages of Group California Health Insurance

 

There are many advantages to choosing group California health insurance. Some of these advantages will mean more to some than to others. Here are the most notable of these advantages.

 

  • Cost: Because the risk for the California health insurance company is spread out among a large group, group health insurance premiums are generally cheaper than individual health insurance. Also, many times your employer will pay a part or all of the premiums as a part of your compensation.  

 

  • Higher chances of being accepted: In general, group health insurance plans are less restrictive on pre-existing conditions and approval for insurance than an individual health insurance plan. This is, once again, because the risk is spread out among the group. 

 

  • Less risk of waiting period: Waiting periods can be a hassle when you are new to a California health insurance policy. Though this is not always the case, you are less likely to not have a waiting period with a group health insurance plan than you are with an individual plan.

 

  • Tax free: Most employees take your California group health insurance premiums out of your paycheck before taxes are taken out. This means that the money you have earned that ends up going to your health insurance is not taxed.

 

Disadvantages of Group California Health Insurance

 

With the advantages come some disadvantages to group California health insurance. Here are the most notable.

 

  • Lack of flexibility: There will already be a set group health insurance plan in place for employees. The co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles and other limits will already be set for you. You may be able to upgrade the group plan, but the extra cost will come out of your own pocket.

 

  • Lack of doctor choice: Many California group health insurance plans are HMOs or PPOs, meaning that there is a network of doctors that you must choose from. If your current doctor is not a member of the network, your health insurance will not pay for treatment from that doctor.

 

  • No choice in health insurance provider: If you choose to go with group California health insurance, you will have little say in the health insurance company that is providing the coverage. There will already be an agreement in place with your employer and the California health insurance company.

 

In most cases, the advantages to group California health insurance outweigh the disadvantages, mainly because of the cost and that many times your employer will pay for the coverage.

 

Legislation Concerning Group California Health Insurance

 

There are lots of legislation that govern group California health insurance. Most of these are to protect you and give you the most opportunity to seek out quality California health insurance. There are two very important pieces of legislation that you should know about when it comes to group California health insurance.

 

You have probably heard of COBRA, which is legislation that allows you to continue purchasing your group health insurance even after you no longer work for the company. This you can do for up to 18 months if your employer had at least 20 employees.

 

Another important piece of legislation governing group California health insurance is called HIPAA. It concerns the portability of your group health insurance. If you change jobs, you will also be changing California health insurance providers. If you have developed a medical condition, this new provider may consider it a pre-existing condition and not cover treatment for that condition. The HIPAA offers you protection from this as long as you have had California health insurance for 12 months in a row with no lapse longer than 63 days. Your pre-existing condition cannot be excluded from your California health insurance plan if you fit these criteria.

 

Shop Around for Health Insurance in California

 

Make sure you compare all your CA health insurance options before you decide. Use our free health insurance quote finder to compare multiple quotes from top companies side by side!

Colorado Health Insurance