Can I Get Health Insurance If I Have Lupus? 
Yes . Pre-existing health conditions such as Lupus can no longer be subject to a pre-existing condition exclusion , waiting period or be the cause for declining to cover a person . Now comes the part where I may part company with some of my peers . Unless you know a lot about health insurance and all the ins and outs of what the Affordable Care Act has caused insurance companies to do in redesigning their products , provider networks and prescription formularies , do n't go to Healthcare.gov for anything more than a cursory examination of what your options might be in the government marketplace and whether you will qualify for any subsidies . You can get a reasonable estimate of these factors without having to set up an account on Healthcare.gov through web sites such as HealthSherpa.com . Persons with chronic diseases , such as Lupus , especially need the services of an experienced health insurance broker who knows the intricacies of the health insurance products sold both inside and outside of the government health insurance marketplace . It is not enough to just see that a particular health insurance carrier is available in the government marketplace and your decision should not be guided solely by the monthly premium . The person with a chronic health condition generally has existing relationships with primary and specialty care providers and may have already gone through a lengthy process of finding the correct medication -LRB- s -RRB- and services for the treatment of their condition . They may even want or require access to medical facilities and providers outside of their immediate area . YOU CAN NOT TAKE FOR GRANTED THAT ALL INSURANCE CARRIERS AND THEIR PRODUCTS , ESPECIALLY THOSE SOLD WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT MARKETPLACE , WILL HAVE YOUR PHYSICIANS OR FACILITIES AS IN-NETWORK PROVIDERS OR THAT YOUR MEDICATIONS WILL BE COVERED UNDER THEIR FORMULARY . Also , access to major centers of excellence like M.D. Anderson , the Mayo Clinic , Memorial Sloan-Kettering and others certainly can not be assumed . This is a major issue especially among health plans sold in the government marketplaces where positioning your product based upon price point is key to marketing success . One of the ways that some carriers have achieved this price point positioning is through the use of so called `` skinny '' networks . Which , as their name implies , offer a reduced selection of providers and often a much more stringent and restrictive list of approved medications . Before you enroll in any health insurance plan you need to confirm with both the insurance carrier and the heath care provider -LRB- s -RRB- that all or at least as many as possible of the pieces of your care system are going to be available to you . You also need to confirm in what manner they will be available to you . Can you continue to go directly to the specialists you have been using or must you have a referral from your primary care physician before you can access that specialist now ? Will your current medication arrangement be honored or will you have to reinvent the wheel by going through a step therapy process of using other medications and having unsatisfactory results before your current medication is approved by the new carrier ? What if you have been going to a center of excellence facility out of town once a year for follow-up exams and treatment , will the new carrier allow this ? These are just some of the crucial questions any person suffering from a chronic disease needs to ask and get answered before they choose a health plan in the era of the Affordable Care Act . 