Short term health insurance is having a moment.
As marketplace premiums climb and open enrollment windows slam shut, more Americans are typing "cheap health insurance" into search bars and landing on plans that promise low monthly payments and fast approval.
Here's the catch: these policies are not the same thing as the coverage you'd get through an employer or Healthcare.gov.
They are temporary, medically underwritten, and can legally exclude people with pre-existing conditions.
That low $89-a-month sticker price usually comes with a deductible in the thousands and a cap on how much the insurer will ever pay out.
Consumer advocates and state regulators have been raising alarms for years.
A 2022 report from the consumer group Families USA found that short term plans often deny a large share of claims and can leave patients on the hook for hospital stays, cancer treatment, and maternity care that regular insurance would cover.
If you're between jobs, waiting on Medicare, or missed open enrollment, a short term plan beats going uninsured for a few months.
Some policies do cover doctor visits, generic drugs, and urgent care.
For a healthy 30-year-old with no medications, it might work as a bridge.
But the fine print matters more than the brochure.
Look for these red flags before you type in a card number: a question about your medical history, a cap on total benefits, a list of excluded conditions, and no coverage for prescription drugs you currently take.
If any of those show up, you're not buying insurance — you're buying a discount card with a monthly fee.
The Trump-era rule that extended these plans to just under 12 months, with renewals allowed for up to three years, is still reshaping the market.
Some states, including California, New York, and New Jersey, have banned or sharply limited them.
If you live in one of those states, you likely won't see these plans advertised at all.
A better first stop is Healthcare.gov, where you can check whether you qualify for a special enrollment period.
Losing a job, moving, getting married, or having a baby all open the door.
If you make under a certain income, you may qualify for subsidies that drop a bronze plan to near zero.
Medicaid is another option in most states, and the income limits are higher than many people assume.
If you do go the short term route, treat it like a rental car: read the exclusions, assume nothing is covered until you verify, and get out before the renewal kicks in.
And never cancel real coverage to buy one of these unless you've run the math on a worst-case hospital bill.
My take: short term plans solve a cash-flow problem, not a health care problem.
They are a stopgap, not a strategy, and the people most likely to need real coverage are the ones these policies are built to avoid.
Final Thoughts
If you can possibly wait for an enrollment window or qualify for a subsidy, do that instead.