About Short Term Health Insurance for Children

Short-term health insurance is a type of emergency health insurance commonly used to fill brief gaps in coverage. These gaps can arise from number of situations, the most common being change in employment. Short-term health insurance for children is the right choice for some families because it proves more cost-friendly than an individual health insurance plan and safer than having no insurance at all.

Pediatrician Visits and Prescriptions

• Because short-term health insurance plans are emergency-only, they generally do not provide coverage for things like checkups and prescription drugs. If your child takes several prescriptions, or will likely need to visit his pediatrician during your lapse in coverage, compare the potential costs of prescription drugs and doctor visits with the cost of purchasing an individual health insurance plan before deciding what type of temporary health insurance is best for your child.

Coverage for Emergencies

• One major benefit of short-term health insurance is it covers your child's medical costs in the event of an emergency. If your child becomes ill or injured during your lapse in coverage, your short-term health insurance would cover all or part of the cost of hospitalization, tests, and treatment. The amount of your overall costs covered by the policy would depend on the specific short-term plan you choose.

Low Monthly Premiums

• One of the greatest benefits of a short-term health insurance policy is the monthly premiums can be much lower than those of an individual health insurance plan. This is because short-term plans are low-risk for the insurer--they only go to healthy individuals, making use of the coverage unlikely. On the flip side, your child may not qualify for short-term health insurance if she has had numerous health problems.

Length of Coverage

• Short-term health insurance plans can have terms of up to three years, though most policies have terms between six months and a year. This becomes risky when an individual isn't certain how long he'll be without coverage. If you file a claim on your short term health insurance policy, chances are they won't renew your coverage once your term expires. This could leave your child without insurance coverage until you're able to enroll in another policy.

Lapse in Coverage Penalties

• For many years, one of the greatest benefits of short-term health insurance was that it prevented health insurance companies from imposing a waiting period before they began to pay for the treatment of a pre-existing condition. However, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 included a provision stating that as of September 2010, insurance companies cannot impose a pre-existing condition waiting period on individuals less than 19 years of age.