Best Short-Term Health Insurance in Alabama (2024)

If you are in-between jobs or missed open enrollment, short-term health insurance can help to cover you temporarily. Temporary health insurance in Alabama can provide coverage for weeks, months or any duration less than a year. Coverage duration can often be extended, but short-term plans are not compliant with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), meaning they may not cover all the essential health benefits. Providers may also decline you if you have pre-existing conditions.

National General Accident & Health and Everest Reinsurance Company offer the best short-term medical insurance in Alabama, with scores of 95 and 85, respectively. However, the best option will depend on the best combination of affordability and coverage for your unique needs.

Keep in mind that short-term health insurance only offers temporary coverage and is not a replacement for marketplace plans. You can research subsidies to find a marketplace plan with better coverage than a short-term plan at a similar cost.

Based on MoneyGeek’s analysis, the best short-term health insurance in Alabama is offered by:

• National General Accident & Health: 95 out of 100
• Everest Reinsurance Company: 85 out of 100
• Companion Life Insurance Company: 62.5 out of 100

These companies were chosen based on their average maximum out-of-pocket costs (MOOP) and various cost-sharing options.

National General Accident & Health and Everest Reinsurance Company have low average MOOP costs at $7,500 and $7,958, respectively. Comparatively, Companion Life Insurance has relatively high MOOP costs at $12,438.

Alabama's cheapest short-term health insurance plan is National General Accident & Health with an average MOOP of $7,500.

While low premiums are great if you are on a budget, keep in mind that the trade-off usually is higher out-of-pocket costs. When choosing a plan based on affordability, it is also vital to ensure it will offer sufficient coverage for your healthcare needs.

If you are in between jobs, you can opt for temporary health insurance for one month between jobs. In such a case, it’s best to consider monthly premiums, health care coverage, and cost-sharing options. Cheap premiums may be appealing, but they come with high MOOPs, so this would only be ideal if you don’t anticipate needing frequent care.

MoneyGeek focused on monthly premiums and cost-sharing options to rank the best short-term health insurance providers between jobs and found that the best companies in Alabama are:

• Everest Reinsurance Company: $173 per month
• Companion Life Insurance Company: $163 per month
• UnitedHealthcare: $177 per month

Each of these companies has monthly premiums ranging from $160–180, but Everest Reinsurance Company offers the most plan options for splitting coverage costs.

Short-term health insurance is meant to bridge lapses in your long-term coverage, usually no more than a few months. This means that you should only purchase short-term medical insurance as an emergency plan to cover you while you wait for a marketplace or employer’s plan to take effect but not as a long-term preventive plan.

In Alabama, you can purchase temporary health insurance for 364 days and still renew, meaning you can be on short-term medical insurance in Alabama for more than a year. However, the maximum duration for short-term health insurance in the state, including renewals, is limited to 36 months.

MoneyGeek answered commonly asked questions to help you learn more about short-term medical insurance in Alabama.