Health Insurance Regulation: National Portability Standards Would
Facilitate Changing Health Plans (Testimony, 07/18/95,
GAO/T-HEHS-95-205).

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.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-HEHS-95-205
     TITLE:  Health Insurance Regulation: National Portability Standards 
             Would Facilitate Changing Health Plans
      DATE:  07/18/95
   SUBJECT:  Health insurance
             Insurance regulation
             Eligibility criteria
             Employee medical benefits
             Insurance premiums
             State law
             Proposed legislation
             Census
IDENTIFIER:  Census Bureau Current Population Survey
             
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