Health Insurance Regulation

Many Americans face discontinuity in their health care coverage when they change employers, and others do not change jobs because of concerns about losing health care coverage. GAO surveyed the status of federal and state insurance reforms and the number of individuals who would be affected by legislation to establish national portability standards. GAO found that federal and state laws reflect steps taken to improve the portability of health insurance, but the possibility remains that an individual's coverage would be reduced when changing jobs because mist private health plans still require waiting periods before making people with preexisting conditions fully eligible for coverage. On the basis of existing data on the number of people who change jobs and studies on the effect of health insurance on job mobility, GAO estimates that roughly up to 21 million Americans would benefit from legislation waiving preexisting condition exclusions for individuals who have maintained continuous health care coverage.