SHOP Exchange Glitches

Nicole Kaeding Open enrollment for Obamacare’s second year begins next week. In the chaotic launch of HealthCare.gov, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) delayed the launch of the sister portal for small businesses. Now, the health insurance exchange for small businesses is expected to open, but it is still plagued with problems. The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) provides an online portal for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees to purchase insurance. The website allows employers to provide a contribution towards an employee’s health insurance purchase. A new report from the New York Times summarizes the issues discovered during recent testing: For example, they said, some health insurance plans approved for sale on the exchange did not show up on the website. The site worked well with some web browsers, like Chrome, but not with others, like Internet Explorer and Firefox. Premiums and other charges for some plans were erroneously displayed as percentages rather than dollar amounts — 350 percent rather than $350, for example. For some households, the principal subscriber was listed as a dependent, or vice versa. HHS is claiming that the website will be functional when open enrollment starts on November 15. The future success of SHOP is doubtful even if HHS gets the website working. States had the option of creating their own SHOP or relying on the federal exchange. Several states decided to launch their exchanges last year. The res...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs