Short Term Health Insurance California|Temporary Health Insurance California San Diego

Need Short Term Health Insurance in California?

Short-term health insurance typically lasts for only 2-12 months. These plans are very basic and don’t provide a lot of the benefits that a standard health plan would offer. Their primary use is to protect people in California from catastrophic financial loss if an accident or an illness occurs during a short temporary period when you don’t have medical coverage.

Short term health policies do not meet the Minimum Essential Coverage requirements of the ACA. Therefore you will potentially be subject to a penalty.

New Affordable Care Act rules now limit the maximum period of a short term or temporary plan to just 3 months. You will need to renew or re-enroll in multiple short term plans if you need coverage to last for more than 3 months.

Short term coverage can be a great solution for people in one of the following situations:

1. Individuals transitioning between jobs

2. College students or recent graduates

3. New employees waiting for group coverage to begin

4. Individuals not yet eligible for Medicare

5. Individuals waiting on approval of major medical coverage

6. Young adults no longer eligible on parents’ policy due to age or status

7. Individuals looking for an affordable substitute for COBRA

In these situations, short term medical insurance, or temporary medical insurance acts as a “bridge” between regular medical insurance.
 

What Temporary Health Insurance Plans Are Available In California?

We provide policies from the leading temporary insurance companies in California, and these are the only short term plans currently available in California :

Lloyd’s of London      IHC Health Solutions

 A few of the major California medical insurance companies are beginning to introduce temporary plans, but they are simply re-branding plans from IHC.

Short term health insurance should really be considered a safety net. There are usually no benefits until you meet the deductible ($250 to $5000). It is not something you would use to go see a doctor for an annual physical, because you would pay for the office visit out of your own pocket.

As a bridge, it solves the problem of providing protection against a major injury or sickness happening during the period of time you are not on a regular policy.

None of the short term medical policies will provide coverage for pre-existing conditions you may have.  For more information about this, and to see if there are better options, please call our office and an Advisor will be happy to help you.

All California plans offer the ability to pay monthly.

The Lloyd’s of London short term health plans are provided through Petersen International Underwriters. Lloyd’s is the insurance company, and Petersen is the administrator that handles the enrollment and claims processing.

What Is The Best California Temporary Health Insurance?

After reviewing the benefits and cost of the plans from Petersen and IHC, the Petersen plans tend to be better priced for ages 40 and above.

The EZ Short Term plans from Petersen offer easy renewal if you need to keep your short term plan for more than 3 months. You can renew up to 3 times. The Petersen policies provide $1,000,000 in coverage during a 3 month period, and include a $25,000 accidental death benefit.

Petersen offers deductibles from $100 to $5,000. If something happens and you reach your deductible, then Petersen begins paying 100% of all additional costs.
IHC will require that you re-enroll in order to keep their short term plan for more than 3 months. IHC plans provide $2,000,000 in coverage during the 3 month period.

Both companies offer the ability to have a plan start as soon as the day after you apply. Both provide online applications to make the process easy and fast.

To compare the plan benefits and pricing you will have to run two separate quotes.
EZ Short Term Medical Quotes:

Short Term Petersen International Underwriters Quotes Here

IHC Health Solutions Quotes:

Temporary IHC Quotes Here

How Do I Get A Short Term Health Plan In California?

The first step is to get a quote showing the short term medical plans that are available where you live in California by clicking the quote links above.

The second step is to pick the plan you want.  Since these temporary policies are intended to be a safety net, and not provide medical benefits unless something extraordinary happens, we want to keep the price lower. The lowest price will be for the policies with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.

We recommend you pick a plan that with a high deductible.

Once you’ve made your choice, the last step is to click the “Apply” button on the right side of the the quote, and complete the online enrollment.

The applications ask 4-11 simple Yes/No questions about your medical history and as long as the answers are all No, the application can be approved immediately.  This enables you to get a temporary plan that can start as quickly as the next day.

Once you have completed the application, along with your payment information, you will be taken to a page where you can download your new health cards.

What if an accident does happen and you have a $5000 deductible? Will you be able to pay the deductible? Having a low-cost accident insurance plan can help pay for those unexpected medical expenses. Check out these 2 low-cost Accident Insurance options:

If you live in San Diego or anywhere in California and need to fill a short term or temporary gap in coverage, we can help you find the best solution. Just give us a call.