Under Proposed Rules, Government Could Choose Insurance Plans for Millions of People

Charles Hughes The administration is considering a rule change that would allow the government to automatically change some people’s exchange plans to a cheaper alternative. HHS recently proposed regulations that would let exchanges offer alternative default options for enrollees. Under current law, most enrollees who did not revisit the exchange website are automatically re-enrolled in their plans (a few states do not allow automatic renewal). The new proposed rules would let exchange enrollees choose whether their default option would be to automatically renew the same plan or to let the government switch them into a cheaper similar plan if theirs becomes more expensive. Under the proposed rules, state exchanges would be given the option to offer these alternatives in 2016, with the federally run exchange offering it in 2017. For people that chose this option, the government would be effectively choosing their insurance plan, a far cry from the “if you like your plan you can keep it” pledge. In one sense, it is not surprising that HHS is at least exploring this option. Automatic renewal presents a host of potential problems. Due to the way the law designed the exchange subsidies, many of these people will end up paying significantly more if they automatically renew. An analysis by the New York Times found that people in the most popular plans would face an average premium increase of 9.5 percent. This could end up affecting millions of people, as a recent Gallup poll...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs