• Understand your state's individual health insurance regulations.cost of healthcare image by Cindy Haggerty from Fotolia.com
  
  The health insurance market is divided between two broad categories of insurance: individual and group. Along with this division in insurance regulations, individual health insurance regulations differ from group health insurance regulations in many states and each state's individual health insurance laws vary. Individual health insurance does, however, have some laws which are common across all states.
  
  

Pre-Existing Conditions

• Most states allow pre-existing conditions to be excluded for a period of time, which is often stipulated by the law. Some states allow health insurers to add riders to their health insurance that will allow the insurance company to permanently exclude some health conditions. Other states ban permanent exclusions but allow the insurer a longer exclusion period for all health conditions. Some states, like Massachusetts, do not allow pre-existing condition exclusions at all.
  
  

Coverage For Children

• Most states force insurance companies to cover newborn and newly-adopted children for 30 to 31 days if the policy already allows coverage for dependent children. After this time period, the parents must add the child to the policy. Some insurance companies request that the parents put the child on the policy during this 30 to 31-day time frame if they want to continue coverage for their children beyond the initial period of automatic coverage.
  
  

Disabled Children

• Disabled individuals are often covered under their parent's policy beyond the maximum age limit specified in the policy for dependent children if the parents can prove that their children are dependent on them because of a physical or mental disability.
  
  

Guaranteed Renewability

• Many states mandate a guaranteed renewal feature on all policies. The mandate is made provided that the insured already has insurance, that insurance premiums are paid on time and that no misrepresentations were made by the insured on the application for insurance. If those provisions are met, the insured will be able to renew the policy regardless of their health status.