With Insurers Exiting Marketplace, Feds Prepare To Shift Consumers To Different Plans
Enrollees have been put on notice that if their insurer has left the market, and they haven't actively chosen a new plan, the government will take action for them. Meanwhile, another call for repeal is sounded in the House.
The New York Times:
Can’t Find A Plan On HealthCare.Gov? One May Be Picked For You.
The federal government will choose health plans for hundreds of thousands of consumers whose insurers have left the Affordable Care Act marketplace unless those people opt out of the law’s exchanges or select plans on their own, under a new policy to make sure consumers maintain coverage in 2017. “Urgent: Your health coverage is at risk,” declares a sample “discontinuation notice,” drafted by the government for use by insurers. It tells consumers that “if you don’t enroll in a plan on your own, you may be automatically enrolled in the plan picked for you.” (Pear, 10/8)
The Hill:
Republican Pushes Ryan To Launch New ObamaCare Lawsuit
A House Republican is circulating a letter among his colleagues urging Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to sue the Obama administration to prevent millions of dollars in legal settlements with ObamaCare insurers. The letter from Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) says a lawsuit should be initiated to prevent a potential payout from an obscure legal fund at the Treasury Department. (Sullivan, 10/7)
And outlets offer more news about rate hikes in the states —
Nashville Tennessean:
Three Things To Know About BlueCross Leaving The Exchanges
Tennessee’s largest insurer, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, announced in late September that it would significantly limit its participation in the Affordable Care Act exchanges. BlueCross will no longer offer individual plans in the Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville regions. The departure encompasses 30 counties with 100,000 consumers expected to be affected. The move is not a total surprise. BlueCross shared in August that it was reevaluating its strategy for selling to individuals and families. Though the company was allowed to raise its 2017 premiums by 62 percent — one of the largest increases in the country — BlueCross couched the approval in uncertainty. (Tolbert, 10/9)
California Healthline:
In For A Shock: Exchange Customers Get Glimpse Of Painful Rate Hikes
Covered California’s big 2017 rate hikes are starting to hit home for consumers. The state health insurance exchange began mailing notices to its 1.3 million customers on Wednesday, alerting them that they can determine exactly how much the premiums for their current plans will rise in 2017, and begin shopping around for cheaper options. (Bazar, 10/7)
Houston Chronicle:
Big Pay For Insurers As Premiums Rise And Plans Tighten
As Texas' largest insurer eliminated hundreds of thousands of coverage plans for some of the state's sickest patients and asked for double-digit rate increases last year, its Chicago-based nonprofit parent company rewarded 10 top executives with a combined $48 million in bonuses. Patricia Hemingway Hall, the now-retired CEO at Health Care Service Corp., the largest customer-owned insurer in the nation with Blue Cross and Blue Shield divisions in five states including Texas, earned the most. Her $16.57 million pay included a $14.9 million bonus, according to 2015 compensation records obtained from the Illinois Department of Insurance. (Deam, 10/8)
Health News Florida:
Rising Premiums Rankle People Paying Full Price For Health Insurance
About 10 million Americans buy individual insurance coverage without cost-reducing federal subsidies on the marketplaces on the open market, according to the Congressional Budget Office... While consumers have faced sticker shock, the insurers have faced what might be called "sicker shock." They are raising premiums after finding that many of the customers buying plans on the individual market were sicker and more costly to insure than expected when the health law was implemented. (Anderson, 10/7)
