What to look out for
If you have been used to group health insurance, there were not many decisions to make. Once you were hired, you got the cover on offer. Your employer picked up the premiums and set the scope of the cover available for each class of eligible employees.
When the risk of claims is spread around a group, the insurance company cannot easily discriminate against one person. All the healthy employees in the scheme pay for the few who prove unhealthy. In the private world, you and your family are the only customers so the first thing to look for is the words, “guaranteed renewable”. That means the insurer has to continue to renew the policy even though someone on the policy has a serious accident or contracts a chronic illness. Without these words, you can be left stranded without cover when the policy expires. No new insurer is going to take on those big bills without having collected years of premiums from you.
But even if you do see a “guarantee” about renewal, don’t think you are home free. Some policies allow the insurer to increase the annual premium without limit. You can find your policy suddenly becomes too expensive for you to renew. This does not break the letter of the term. You do have a guaranteed right to renew if only you can find the premium asked.
