Availability of short-term health insurance in Mississippi

Yes. As of 2024, there were at least five insurers offering short-term health insurance in Mississippi.

The average monthly premium for a short-term health insurance plan sold in Mississippi was $238.93 in 2023, according to data from IHC Specialty Benefits.

Short-term health insurance in Mississippi is allowed to follow federal durational limits, as the state does not impose its own.¹

So before September 2024, insurers are allowed to offer short-term health insurance in Mississippi with initial terms up to 364 days and the option to renew for a total duration of up to 36 months. This is in keeping with the regulations the Trump administration implemented in late 2018. Insurers can still cap their short-term plans at shorter durations, however, and prohibit renewal if they choose to do so.

However, those limits will soon change under new federal rules. Short-term plans issued on or after Sept. 1, 2024 will be limited to total durations of no more than four months, including renewals. Initial terms will be capped at no more than three months.

Short-term health insurance in Mississippi can be purchased by residents who can meet the underwriting guidelines of insurers.

In most cases, this means being younger than 65 and not having any of the short list of medical conditions that will result in a declined application.² But the specific requirements vary from one insurance company to another.

Short-term health insurance plans usually do not cover any pre-existing conditions, and they often use post-claims underwriting (meaning that they will go back through a person’s medical records after a claim is filed, to make sure it isn’t related to a pre-existing medical condition).³

Short-term health plans also generally exclude coverage for some of the ACA’s essential health benefits (most commonly, maternity care, prescription drugs, and mental health care),² and impose dollar limits on the coverage they do provide.

It’s important to double-check all of the plan information before purchasing a short-term policy, to make sure that you understand the limitations of the plan.

If you need health insurance in Mississippi, your first step should be to see if you can buy an ACA-compliant major medical plan through the health insurance exchange (marketplace) in Mississippi. These plans are available on HealthCare.gov during the annual open enrollment period (November 1 – January 15). And they’re also available if you’ve experienced a qualifying life event that triggers a special enrollment period (loss of coverage is a qualifying event, but note that it has to be minimum essential coverage; loss of a short-term health plan does not trigger a special enrollment period to purchase an individual market plan, because short-term health insurance is not minimum essential coverage).

If you’re eligible to purchase an ACA-compliant plan, you can buy it even if you’re only going to need it for a short while — while you’re waiting for Medicare to take effect, for example, or for coverage from a new job. ACA-compliant plans are purchased on a month-to-month basis, so you can enroll (with a premium subsidy if you’re eligible) and then cancel the coverage if and when your new policy becomes effective.

There are times when a short-term health insurance plan might be the only realistic option, such as:

• If you missed open enrollment for ACA-compliant coverage and do not have a qualifying event that would trigger a special enrollment period.
• If you’ll soon be enrolled in Medicare and aren’t eligible for an employer’s plan or a special enrollment period for an individual market plan to cover you in meantime. Note that although Medicare covers pre-existing conditions, Medigap policies can impose a pre-existing condition waiting period if you didn’t have coverage for your pre-existing conditions prior to enrolling in Medicare.
• If you’re newly employed, have a waiting period before your employer’s health coverage takes effect, and do not have a qualifying event that will allow you to use an ACA-compliant plan during the waiting period.
• If you’re not eligible for Medicaid or a premium subsidy in the exchange, the monthly premiums for an ACA-compliant plan might simply be too costly. This includes people trapped in the coverage gap caused by Mississippi’s refusal to expand Medicaid. This affects adults with income below the poverty level who aren’t eligible for Medicaid (due to the state’s rejection of Medicaid expansion) and also aren’t eligible for premium subsidies in the marketplace.

All short-term plans in the state have to be filed with the Insurance Department and approved before they can be sold. The Mississippi Insurance Department confirmed in October 2018 that the state was considering various requirements and regulations pertaining to short-term plans.

The Department noted, however, that they did not plan to limit short-term plan duration — and would instead continue to follow federal regulations for that. So total duration of short-term health insurance policies in Mississippi has been up to 36 months since late 2018, but will drop to four months starting with plans sold or issued in September 2024.

The Mississippi Insurance Department published a document in late 2019 that includes an explanation of how a short-term health plan could be an economical choice for some consumers, given the lower premium costs (assuming the person isn’t eligible for premium subsidies in the Mississippi exchange/Marketplace) and potentially lower deductibles. They do note that “short-term health insurance may have limits that regular health insurance does not have (e.g., caps on annual benefits paid).” But they go on to state that “for stopgap coverage, these plans are a good option.”⁴

This is a different stance than insurance departments in many other states have taken, as insurance commissioners tend to warn consumers more strongly against short-term health insurance.