ACA Enrollment Update: In Conn., Sign Up Estimates On Par With Last Year’s Numbers
People in one Virginia county that's hard hit by premium hikes and other insurance-market instability are seeking answers and solutions now. Meanwhile, consumer advocates are focusing on some of the new types of insurance products that are emerging as people grapple with the rising costs.
The CT Mirror:
Access Health Projecting 2018 Enrollment Will Match Last Year’s
With about three weeks left in open enrollment, Access Health CT CEO Jim Wadleigh estimates that the health insurance exchange will end the enrollment period with about the same number of customers it had at the end of last year's signup. (Rigg, 12/1)
The Wall Street Journal:
Charlottesville Residents Unite To Protest Likely Surge In Health-Insurance Premiums
The college town of Charlottesville, Va., is fast becoming the exemplar for millions of people without federal subsidies whose health-insurance premiums will rise sharply next year. Its county, Albemarle, will have the highest costs in the nation in 2018 for people on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. Hundreds of residents who buy their own insurance, but earn too much for federal help, have banded together in the past two weeks, trying to pressure Congress for some kind of relief. (Armour, 11/30)
Kaiser Health News:
Desperate For Coverage: Are Short-Term Plans Better Than None At All?
When one of Cindy Holtzman’s clients told the Woodstock, Ga., broker he was considering dropping his Affordable Care Act plan because next year’s cost approached $23,000 for his family of four, she suggested a new option: a back-to-back set of four, 90-day short-term plans, which would effectively give them a modicum of medical coverage for 2018. An Obama administration rule limited short-term coverage to three months at a time because it was meant as a stopgap between more substantial policies. But several insurers, including big players Golden Rule and National General, now are sidestepping that rule by packaging three or four consecutive 90-day plans, with a one-time medical review upfront. (Appleby, 12/1)
