Availability of short-term health insurance in Kansas

Yes. As of 2024, the Kansas Department of Insurance noted that six insurers were licensed to offer short-term health insurance plans in Kansas.¹

For short-term health insurance policies effective in September 2024 or later, total policy duration, including renewals, cannot exceed four months. This rule applies nationwide unless a state has stricter rules, which Kansas does not.

Because federal rules for short-term health insurance duration are now stricter than Kansas rules, the federal rules are used. But from late 2018 through mid-2024, Kansas rules were more stringent than federal rules, which meant the state’s rules were applicable.

Kansas state law limits short-term health insurance to terms of “six months or 12 months, based upon policy design.” (The Kansas Insurance Department clarified that the distinction between six-month and 12-month plans was up to the insurer; from a regulatory standpoint, the maximum term was 12 months).

Kansas statute also limits short-term coverage to no more than one renewal period, regardless of whether the insurer uses medical underwriting for the renewal.

Both chambers of the Kansas legislature passed a bill (SB199) in 2022 that would have eliminated the “six months or 12 months” language, as well as the one renewal limit. But Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the legislation.

If it had been enacted, the bill would have aligned the Kansas rules for short-term health insurance with the federal rules that the Trump administration implemented in 2018 (ie, initial terms of up to 364 days, and total duration of up to three years). Those rules were in effect through August 2024, when they were replaced with the new rule described above.

The federal regulations in both cases were clear in noting that states could impose tighter regulations than the federal rules. Since Kansas statute only allows for a maximum short-term plan duration of 12 months and no more than one renewal, the maximum total duration of a short-term plan in Kansas was 24 months during the years that federal rules allowed up to 36 months in many other states.

But now that the federal rules limit short-term policy durations to no more than four months, that limit is used in Kansas instead of the state’s 24-month limit.

Short-term health insurance in Kansas is defined in Kansas Statute 40-2, 193.

Kansas has a minimum loss ratio requirement of 60%. But under the terms of Kansas Statute 40-2, 193, this only applies to short-term coverage if any monthly administrative fees are excluded from the medical loss ratio calculation.

Short-term health insurance in Kansas can only be renewed one time, so the maximum allowable duration was 24 months during the year when the Trump administration’s rules were in use. Now that the Biden administration’s rules are in effect, the maximum short-term policy duration in Kansas is four months.

As noted above, Kansas lawmakers passed legislation in 2022 that would have allowed short-term plans to have total durations, including renewals, of up to three years (to align with federal rules that were in place at that point), but the legislation was vetoed by the governor.

Short-term health insurance in Kansas can be purchased by residents (individuals or families) who meet the underwriting guidelines of insurers. In general, this means being under 65 years old and in fairly good health.

Short-term health medical insurance plans typically include blanket exclusions for pre-existing conditions, so these types of plans are not adequate for someone in the Sunflower State who needs medical care for a chronic ongoing or pre-existing condition.

If you’re trying to enroll in health insurance in Kansas outside of the annual open enrollment period (November 1 to January 15), first check your eligibility for a special enrollment period which would allow you to enroll in an ACA-compliant major medical plan. There are a variety of qualifying life events that will trigger a special enrollment period and allow you to buy a plan through the health insurance exchange in Kansas.

There’s also a special enrollment period for subsidy-eligible people whose income is between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level.

Marketplace plans are purchased on a month-to-month basis, so you can enroll even if you only need coverage for a few months before another policy takes effect (with a premium subsidy if you’re eligible).

From Colby to Wichita, there may be situations when a short-term plan might be an attractive option, such as:

• If you missed open enrollment for ACA-compliant individual market coverage (i.e., Obamacare) or your employer’s healthcare plan, and do not have a qualifying event that would trigger a special enrollment period.
• If you’re switching jobs and have a waiting period until you can be covered by your new employer’s health insurance plan; short-term insurance is typically a much more affordable stopgap than COBRA (but the loss of your prior coverage would also trigger a special enrollment period during which you could buy an ACA-compliant plan in the Kansas Marketplace; this is true even if you’re offered the option to continue your prior coverage with COBRA).
• You will soon qualify for Medicare and don’t have another coverage option in the meantime.
• If you’re not eligible for Medicaid or a premium subsidy in the exchange, the monthly premiums for an ACA-compliant plan might simply not be affordable. This includes people caught in the coverage gap that Kansas has created by refusing to accept federal funding to expand Medicaid. It also includes undocumented immigrants, who are not eligible for Medicaid or Marketplace coverage.