Short-Term Health Insurance: What You Need to Know

What Is Short-Term Health Insurance?

Short-term health insurance is temporary coverage designed to fill gaps between longer-term plans. Policies typically last 1–12 months and are available year-round without an enrollment period. They cost significantly less than ACA marketplace plans — but come with major limitations.

What Short-Term Plans Don’t Cover

Short-term plans are NOT ACA-compliant. This means they can and do:

• Deny applicants based on pre-existing conditions
• Exclude pre-existing conditions from coverage even after enrollment
• Omit essential health benefits: maternity care, mental health, substance use disorder treatment, and prescription drugs are commonly excluded
• Impose benefit limits: annual and lifetime caps on coverage that ACA plans cannot impose
• Exclude preventive care or cover it with cost-sharing

These are not minor gaps — they represent the majority of the cost risk that health insurance is supposed to protect against.

When Short-Term Insurance Makes Sense

Short-term insurance is most appropriate as a bridge option in narrow circumstances:

• A healthy adult who just missed Open Enrollment and has no qualifying life event, and needs some coverage until next enrollment period
• A gap period between jobs where COBRA is prohibitively expensive and no marketplace SEP has been triggered
• New college graduates who aged off a parent’s plan and have a very limited budget and excellent health

Short-term plans are NOT appropriate for anyone with pre-existing conditions, pregnancy, mental health needs, or regular prescription medications — in these cases, the coverage exclusions leave you exposed to the exact risks you most need to protect against.

State Availability Varies

Some states restrict or ban short-term health insurance. California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and several other states prohibit short-term plans or limit their duration to 3 months. Of the 21 states where Health Advisory is licensed, most allow short-term plans with some restrictions. Confirm availability and state-specific rules before purchasing.