Health insurance open enrollment gets all the attention, but there is a parallel market that runs year-round and often shows up first in a Google search: short term health insurance.
These plans can be purchased in minutes, sometimes for less than $100 a month, and they are marketed heavily to people who just lost a job, missed a deadline, or got quoted an eye-watering price on an ACA plan.
Short term plans are not required to follow the Affordable Care Act's rules, which means they can deny coverage based on your medical history, exclude pre-existing conditions entirely, and cap how much they will pay out.
They also do not have to cover the ten essential health benefits, so maternity care, mental health treatment, and prescription drugs may be missing or limited.
None of that makes them illegal or worthless.
For a healthy 28-year-old between jobs who mainly wants protection against a surprise appendectomy, a short term plan can function as a genuine bridge.
The problem is who tends to buy them: people with chronic conditions, people in their fifties, and families who need real coverage and mistake a low premium for a good deal.
A plan advertising $85 a month may come with a $10,000 deductible, a $250,000 lifetime cap, and no coverage at all for anything a doctor noted in your chart before you applied.
One emergency room visit can exceed the cap.
One diagnosis can trigger a rescission review.
The premium was never the price; it was the entry fee.
Under a 2024 federal rule, short term plans sold as "short term, limited duration" are capped at three months of coverage, with an option to renew for up to four months total, depending on the state.
Some states, including California and New York, restrict or effectively ban them.
That patchwork means two neighbors can buy wildly different products with the same label.
If you are staring down a coverage gap, the boring options are usually better.
Losing a job qualifies you for a special enrollment period on Healthcare.gov, generally sixty days from the loss of coverage.
A marketplace plan may come with subsidies that make the real cost lower than the sticker price, and checking that number takes ten minutes.
If you do buy a short term plan, read the exclusions page before the benefits page.
Look for the words "pre-existing condition," "lifetime maximum," and "prescription drug exclusion." Call the insurer and ask what happens if you get diagnosed with something expensive in month two.
If the answer is vague, that is your answer.
The appeal of these plans is understandable.
American health coverage is expensive, confusing, and tied to employment in a way that punishes anyone between jobs.
A cheap option that promises peace of mind is hard to walk past.
Final Thoughts
But a plan that vanishes the moment you actually need it is not insurance in any meaningful sense.