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The health law gives consumers until March 31 to sign up for health insurance, but it may be weeks before coverage begins. So the administration says it will not penalize anyone who signs up by that date.
Websites like eHealthInsurance.com that were planning to start selling new, subsidized Obamacare policies on Oct. 1 still can’t offer them to customers.
Medicaid patients can see different kinds of doctors in one visit, and the hope is it will provide better patient care, eventually at less cost to the state.
Using health law subsidies, many will be able to afford health coverage for the first time. But the insurance they’ll be buying comes with caveats.
Consumer columnist Michelle Andrews answers questions about the insurance landscape under the new health law.
If the bugs are not repaired by mid-November, fewer young and healthy people may enroll in new plans, spurring future price hikes and other problems, say experts.
“Nobody is madder than me” about the problems consumers have had with the federal insurance marketplace, Obama said in a Rose Garden speech, “which means it’s going to get fixed.”
Many physicians and hospitals have been unable to determine which health plans offered in the health law’s insurance marketplace include them in their provider networks.
Insurers say the old policies fail to meet the law’s requirements, but some consumers complain about being forced to buy more expensive policies.
In Washington state, nearly 25,000 residents have signed up for coverage in the exchange’s first two weeks, whereas in Oregon, no one has been able to enroll through its website, although low-income residents have been able to sign up for Medicaid without the site.
Health centers expand thanks to federal grants, but increased competition could hurt smaller facilities.
Lawmakers have until Dec. 13 to reach agreement under legislation ending the shutdown of the government and raising the debt ceiling.
The simple answer is that under the health law’s individual mandate, American must have insurance by March 31. But unfortunately it’s not that straightforward.
