There are two aspects to the concept of portability that are important in a healthcare reform conversation:
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects American workers' access to health insurance when they change or lose their jobs by making sure pre-existing conditions do not inhibit someone's access to health insurance.
Since the insurance is employer-based, however, the worker must make a change to his or her insurance company and plan when job changes are made; health insurance is not portable from one employer to another.
This becomes particularly problematic, because each year fewer employers offer health insurance as a benefit. Therefore, many employees feel indentured to their employers; they can't change jobs, because they can't afford to lose their health insurance.
Many experts in healthcare reform insist that portability needs to shift to the individual, away from the employer. That would mean that once an individual is accepted in to a healthcare plan and continues to make the necessary premium payments, he or she would be able to continue obtaining healthcare services through that plan even when they leave the job.
