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Short Term Health Insurance for California

For individual and family insurance in California, there are two clear types of potential coverage.  The first is long term or "permanent" coverage and the second is short term or "temporary" insurance.  There are definitely times when the latter (or the concept) can make sense so let's walk through short term California health insurance and look at the common questions that people have.

What exactly constitutes "Short Term"?

First, let's establish what type of situation short term is designed to address.  Obviously, we're looking at a period of time that shorter in nature.  If your expected period of time MIGHT extend beyond 6 months of need, short term is probably not the best choice.   A good example of a potential use of short term is having a 3 month waiting period for group health to kick in.  This is actually a very common use of it.  We also get calls from people who are in between jobs and this can be trickier unless you know for sure that you'll have new group coverage in under 6 months.  Best to plan for the worst and hope for the best.  If short term looks like it will fit our needs, what are the benefits?

The new version of "short term" coverage using traditional plans

Here's the deal...we've lost most of our short term plans in the last 18 months from the market (Cross, Shield, and Health Net have all stopped offering short term coverage).  Currently there is Assurant which is one of the last true short term providers.   Because of this, many Californians actually purchase a catastrophic health plan  such as Health Net's Advantage or Blue Cross Clear Protection which are priced about the same as what short term plans used to cost.  The advantage is that you can cancel these plans month to month or renew indefinitely so they are much more flexible than the old short term plans.  This is our recommendation for temporary periods of time in which you need coverage until we see if new carriers come online after the dust from health reform settles.

Remaining Short term plans in California

If you truly want a short term plan,  Assurant offers a range of deductibles and monthly premiums which you can quote through our Online short term quote engine.  The engine requires that you specify short term versus traditional health plans up front.  You can always run two separate quotes so compare the two if you like.  Again, the traditional plans mentioned above are hard to beat price wise which used to be the one true advantage that short term policies offered Californians. 

Related Pages:

Health Net Advantage plans in California
Blue Cross Clear Protection $3300
Length of Contract for health plans