[quote=bearishgurl]
nsr, I’ve already talked to a couple of brokers. The insurance companies have already “adapted.” Neither of them advocated signing up for ANY plan until after October 1 when Covered CA provisions will be more “fleshed out.” They can’t guarantee that ANY plan a CA resident signs up for today will even be in existence in 2014 or throughout 2014.
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BG, the reality is they never could guarantee any plan would be here next year, whether this year, or five years ago.
Companies readily dropped plans and changed plans all the time. In fact, that’s why I get multiple notices about changes to my plans every year.
GM invented the mini-van. They no longer sell mini-vans.
Likewise, they’ve discontinued many car makes and entire car lines.
Yes, there’s a big change coming. The insurance companies are reacting to making new plans targeted to an insurance pool that is much larger.
You choose poorly. You chose a cheap provider that has bailed on you. If you would have chosen Kaiser, or one of the others, you’d still have insurance.
Fickle isn’t it. Which is why the changes in ACA, while expensive, are needed. I don’t say that to be petty or mean. It’s just one more way insurance companies are fickle and a person finds themselves suddenly hung out to dry by them. For many, it’s when they actually get sick.
Even without ACA, given Aetna’s private insurance market penetration, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see them bail on really any changes. Most major companies divest themselves of anything that isn’t a material cash cow if they’re not one of the top three in the market.
You can count yourself as fortunate or unfortunate, but essentially, when Aetna saw they couldn’t cherry pick in California so that people could pay far more than they use, Aetna decided to leave. I would say you’re very fortunate to have been in a position to be cherry picked. And very fortunate that the common random event didn’t come up to have Aetna decide they no longer wanted to cherry pick you.
