Guaranteed issue laws require insurance companies to issue a health plan to any applicant - an individual or a group - regardless of the applicant's health status or other factors. Currently, in most states, insurance companies can deny nongroup coverage to people based on their health status or their medical expenses over the past year. This means that an uninsured person who develops a certain condition, such as breast cancer, might not be able to buy health insurance. In such an instance, insurance companies can (and often do) refuse to issue a health insurance policy to that individual. Guaranteed issue laws require insurance companies to issue a health plan to any applicant, including those with preexisting medical conditions. However, in some cases those companies may impose pre-existing condition exclusions on the policy, meaning that coverage for such conditions is not immediately available.
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