You like your health insurance plan, so you want to keep it in 2017. The potential problem is…
As we experience each year, there will be shifts in the health insurance market for 2017 open enrollment, and those shifts will include the cancellation of some health plans. As such, your health insurance options may look a little different when 2017 open enrollment begins.
One big change that made headlines in recent months was UnitedHealthcare’s announcement that it will pull out of about 34 state-based and federally facilitated exchanges next year (Including Ga.). The company cited increasing losses on Obamacare plans as the reason. You may be among the individuals and families who can’t re-enroll in the same coverage.
Here are three common reasons some individual and family health insurance plans could be cancelled for 2017—and three ways you can handle such situations.
- Your health insurance carrier stopped selling exchange-based plans or exited the individual market completely. Each year, health insurance companies enter and leave the state-based and federally facilitated health insurance exchanges. Some continue to sell individual policies in the private market, while others leave the individual market completely—either nationwide, statewide or regionally.
We do not yet know all of the changes in store for 2017 open enrollment. However, 50 health insurance carriers left the ACA’s state-based and federally facilitated health insurance exchanges for 2016 open enrollment.
- Your state’s health insurance co-op is closing. Georgia is a Federal facilitated state but for the states that are still state run, 16 for the 23 will be closed by the end of 2016.
- Your carrier stopped offering PPO plans. A PPO, which stands for preferred provider organization, is a type of health insurance plan that typically gives consumers the option to select in- or out-of-network healthcare providers. In what seems to be a market-wide trend, many insurance companies reduced or eliminated their PPO plan offerings for 2016 and opted to offer an HMO plan instead. Which consumers soon found out that HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) are very limiting in what doctors you can see in network.
There are other reasons your health insurance plan may be cancelled, including the discontinuation of grandfathered plans. No matter why your coverage might cease to exist at year-end, your health insurance company will notify you in advance. If you have questions or concerns about your 2016 coverage not being available in 2017, please contact me, your Insurance Nana (Amy Kelley) at 770-527-5598 or Am*@In***********.com