|
Texas Health Insurance Policy
Living with mental and physical disabilities is hard enough on its own but throw in the difficulty of finding health insurance and it’s even harder. There are nearly four million Texans who deal with it every day. Finding a health insurance plan becomes difficult because so many have stringent pre existing condition requirements and those who can find insurance find themselves dealing with the possibility of denied claims, higher premiums, policy cancellations and flat out refusal to renew their policies. In this write up we’ll look at the rights the disabled have under Texas Health Insurance laws and the actions they may make if it is believed that they have been wronged by their health insurance provider.
Before a Texas Health Insurance provider can write disabled residents a Texas health insurance policy it has to be determined if they qualify for coverage. This is done in a process called underwriting. While in underwriting, the possible insured’s age, occupation, current health status, and their medical history is examined and if it is found that the insured is likely to have a claim with them, they are charged a higher premium or sometimes refused coverage. Some of the risk factors that are looked at in underwriting include any history of cancers, statistically, how likely is it that you may file a claim, current medical problems such as visual impairment. These and other factors can affect whether or not you will be accepted by a Texas Health Insurance provider.
As a disabled person in Texas, as in the rest of America, you have rights to protect you against discrimination by Texas Health Insurance providers on a Texas health insurance policy. The Texas Insurance Code has laws that prevent any Texas Health Insurance Company from denying your coverage, refusing to renew your Texas Health Insurance policy, or charging you higher premiums just because of your disability. The only way any Texas health insurance policy can do any of the above is if their actions are based on “sound underwriting or actuarial principles reasonably related to actual or anticipated loss experience”. That is directly quoted from the Texas Insurance Code. Its counterpart, the Texas Administrative Code, provides the same protection against discrimination as the Texas Insurance Code but instead applies it to blind and partially blind Texas residents. These are not the only laws protecting the disabled and blind in Texas. The federal Americans With Disabilities Act, also known as the ADA, might also provide addition protection against discrimination as the Texas Insurance Code and Texas Administrative Code do. If you would like or need more information concerning your rights as a disabled American, please call the Americans with Disabilities Technical Assistance Center for more information on Texas health insurance policy.
|