Washington State individual health insurance is also referred to as Washington individual health care coverage. This coverage is classified in two categories and referred to as either comprehensive or catastrophic health care. Comprehensive coverage is characterized by lower deductibles and more complete benefit packages while catastrophic coverage refers to higher deductible plans with certain benefits, like maternity, excluded. Both are considered major medical insurance policies since the insurance company assumes essentially all the risk after you pay a deductible and your percentage of shared expenses, called coinsurance.

Individual plans are available is several designs and deductibles allowing you to choose options to keep your health care plan affordable. While health insurance may not be low cost, the number of choices provided allows you to select plans to keep your cost low as a trade-off for other benefits. Remember that premiums are driven by the cost of medical care in the WA geographic area in which you live. Generally if you purchase a policy that costs less in monthly premium, you will usually end up paying a greater share of the medical expenses when you are sick or hurt.

Most Washington individual health insurance plans are managed care plans where you receive higher benefits when you play by the rules of the plan. Some are Preferred Provider plans where you receive the maximum benefit if you stay within the plan's provider network, the physicians, hospitals and other medical providers who have agreed to the plan's schedule of payments for services performed. These plans usually allow you to receive healthcare services outside their network of providers, but at an additional cost to you. Some may require the selection of a Primary Care Physician (PCP), a personal physician who directs all your care and who's written referral you need prior to visiting a specialist.

Family insurance is simply an individual policy with more than one insured member of the family included in the application and coverage. Private and personal insurance are other names for individual health insurance.

Applying for health care coverage requires filling out a health questionnaire, in most cases. The insurance company uses this to determine whether to approve you for coverage or refer you to the Washington State Health Insurance Pool (WSHIP), the state's high-risk pool. Do not try to hide information about your health condition. Hiding information can result in the insurance company retroactively terminating your coverage back to its effective date, leaving you responsible for all of your expenses, less any premiums paid. You are not required to fill out a health questionnaire if you apply within 90 days of meeting one of these conditions:

• You have exhausted COBRA coverage.
• Lose COBRA coverage because your former employer went out of business.
• Relocate to a different area of Washington.
• Need to change in order to be able to continue to see your personal physician.
• Lose group coverage after 24 months of uninterrupted active group coverage and COBRA is not available.
• Lose group coverage after 24 months of uninterrupted active group coverage and the group is exempt from COBRA.
• Lose coverage due to a cancellation of your group conversion plan.
• Lose (or are losing) Washing State Basic Health Plan coverage after 24 months of continuous coverage.

If you have not previously had health insurance coverage, the insurance company may impose a 9-month waiting period before your coverage starts for anything you were treated for, or should have sought treatment for, during the six months immediately prior to the start date of your new policy. If you had prior health insurance, you will generally be given equivalent credit towards meeting this 9-month waiting period, provided you did not have a significant break in coverage between the two plans.

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