Medically Underwritten Health Care Plans

There are two other types of health care plans other than Medically Underwritten plans:

• Guaranteed Issue Plans: These plans can be applied for within 60-90 days of your employee group benefits terminating. You can transition seamlessly (no medical questions) to one of these plans so long as you apply within the 60-90 day window. Most insurers offer 60-days to make this transition, others up to 90-days. Guaranteed Issue plans tend to offer 'moderate' value relative to Medically Underwritten plans. The key benefit of a Guaranteed Issue plan is that pre-existing medical conditions (if any) will be covered - so long as you transition to one of these plans within the 60-90 day window.
• Guaranteed Acceptance Plans: These plans can be applied for at anytime, without needing to qualify medically (no medical questions). Guaranteed Acceptance plans tend to offer the 'lowest' value relative to the other plan types, but serve as a good option for those who cannot qualify for a Medically Underwritten plan, and are outside the 60-90 day window to qualify for a Guaranteed Issue plan.

Medically Underwritten extended heath care plans will tend to offer better value (compared to other types of plans such as; Guaranteed Issue, and Guaranteed Acceptance plans).

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I.e. more money, for more treatments and services at a lower relative cost.

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Insurers are able to offer a better value plan when they are given the opportunity to assess your medical history.

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The 'caveat' to a Medically Underwritten health care plan is that any 'pre-existing conditions' that you are being treated for or taking medication for will typically be excluded from coverage.

It depends on the type of plan.

• For Guaranteed Issue and Guaranteed Acceptance plans, your coverage will be effective on the 1st of the next month after an application and payment is received.
• For Medically Underwritten plans, your coverage coverage will be effective on the 1st of the next month after an application has been approved (subject to qualifying medically) and payment is received.
• Medically Underwritten plans can sometimes take longer as the insurance company usually needs to obtain records from your attending physician(s). Average time to approval tends to be about 3-weeks. If the insurance company has difficulty obtaining the medical records from your attending physician(s) this may take additional time.