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Qualifications for Health Insurance

Whether you are looking to get health insurance for yourself, your family or your employees, you will have to meet the qualifications of the insurance provider before you can get coverage. If you lose your job or decide to quit, you can also qualify for insurance that will allow you to temporarily extend your health coverage provided through your employer.

  1. Individual Health Insurance Qualifications

    • Insurance companies have qualifications that you will have to meet to be eligible for individual health insurance policies. When you apply for coverage, you will be asked for your age, height, weight, occupation, and a series of questions pertaining to your health in order to be considered for health insurance. You will need to provide your doctor's information and visits, any prescriptions taken and the reasons for them, and any illnesses. The underwriters will review your information to determine if you qualify for a policy and if the policy will have increased premium amounts or will have to exclude any pre-existing conditions. Underwriters make these decisions based on the information you provide and certain other factors such as if you are overweight or underweight, work in a dangerous occupation or have medical issues that are not covered by the insurance company. The company may also reject your application entirely.

    Group Health Insurance Qualifications

    • If you are a small business owner and want insurance coverage for yourself and your employees, you will have to meet the qualifications for group health insurance. You will first have to prove that you have a legitimate business by providing documentation such as a business license, a DBA filing of the business name and articles of incorporation. You will need to have at least one other full-time employee, in addition to yourself, who is included on your business tax filings to prove his status as an employee of your company. The insurance company will require that you pay a minimal employer contribution, usually a percentage of the total expense of providing your employees' health insurance. Since every insurance company requirements are different, you may want to shop several insurers until you find the company that has the smallest required employee contribution in order to control how much you spend.

    Extended Health Insurance Qualifications

    • If you have group coverage from an employer that has 20 employees or more, you may qualify for insurance coverage under COBRA. To get COBRA, you must have lost or quit your job or had your hours reduced. If you are enrolled in the company's insurance plan at the time of your separation, you may continue your coverage temporarily while you seek employment and health insurance coverage elsewhere. The coverage will remain the same, even for your spouse and children, but you will have to pay the full premium. You can keep your health insurance coverage for up to 18 months as long as you pay the premiums. Qualifications for extending it to 36 months can include becoming disabled, undergoing a divorce or separation, and a child losing dependent status.

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