The prohibition on existing condition exclusions in work-based health insurance is a key ERISA provision that predates Obamacare by decades, but even it required employers to provide everyone insurance (so no cherry-picking) and also required the new employee to have had prior “credible” coverage.
The Obamacare prohibition on existing condition exclusion has NO requirement of prior credible coverage AND applied to the individual (i.e., “exchange”) markets, where sick or injured people can cherry-pick to their hearts content. The disastrous actuarial impacts are EVER SO SLIGHTLY mitigated by the individual and employer mandates ... so of course the House GOP takes away the mandates while leaving the prohibition on exclusion.
The portability of healthcare is actually a HIPAA provision that predates the ACA by decades.
However, it only applied to group (employer) policies, not individual policies and not ERISA policies. So, it had some big gaps.
The ACA wiped out those gaps AND wiped out the prior creditable coverage provisions.
Under the ACA, if you are a 50 year old whose had diabetes your entire life, you can get coverage and diabetes CANNOT be a pre-existing condition. Even if you never had insurance before.
The portability of healthcare is actually a HIPAA provision that predates the ACA by decades.
However, it only applied to group (employer) policies, not individual policies and not ERISA policies. So, it had some big gaps.
The ACA wiped out those gaps AND wiped out the prior creditable coverage provisions.
Under the ACA, if you are a 50 year old whose had diabetes your entire life, you can get coverage and diabetes CANNOT be a pre-existing condition. Even if you never had insurance before.