Let’s say you are a 23 year old female who wants to get health insurance. At age 20 you played soccer for your university and you busted your knee. A health insurance company will take special notice of that. Your knee is considered a pre-existing condition. And that’s not good news for you.
A waiver or rider is an insurance company’s method of excluding certain pre-existing conditions from health coverage.
So, what are you going to do?
Here are options:
1. Accept a “waiver’ or “rider” (same idea) for the knee. You will be insured for everything else except your knee.
2. Get “capped coverage.” In this situation the company does not cover the pre-existing condition for the first 24 months, and then limits coverage for the condition to $5,000 a year for the next ten years. This is better than no coverage at all for your knee.
3. Which brings us to the best option, in my opinion. Accept a temporary rider. Often a company will remove a rider after 24 months if you have had no recurring problems with your knee. Overall, a health insurance rider is preferable to capped coverage if there is a possibility the rider can be lifted at a later date.
Good Neighbor Insurance – covering International Health and Travel Insurance
