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Another Last Minute Change to the Affordable Care Act
The President announced yesterday that some individual policyholders and small groups (2-50) may be allowed to remain with their current 2013 policy for an additional year. The "fix" may "allow" health insurance companies to delay moving current benefit plans to the ACA formatted benefit plans with "community" rates beginning with their 2014 anniversary date.
The dictate from the President did not provide any details, which should be forthcoming from HHS. Once the rules are disclosed, the state insurance departments and carriers will be working to determine how best to comply and implement the latest rules.
These constant changes are extremely disruptive to the insurance marketplace and confusing to customers. The insurance companies and their customers now have no idea what's going to be "law" tomorrow, next month or next year. As long as the administration can simply change the rules at any time, the marketplace will remain volatile. Carriers and employers make decisions based on current information, and if the administration constantly changes the rules, taxes and fees the carriers will be forced to adjust the benefits and premiums accordingly and customers will see constant change.
The primary goal of the private marketplace remains maintaining access to quality, affordable health care for their members. The carriers are making every effort to ensure there are no disruptions in health insurance for their existing members. Once the new options are available we will reach out to our consumers who may be affected as a result of this change.
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