… Premium prices for marketplace plans will remain stable throughout each calendar year, but can be raised from year to year for everyone in your policy group—that is, everyone who bought the same kind of plan from the same insurer.
The first coverage period is Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2014. Insurers face many uncertainties with this new market, and they will likely adjust their prices once they have more information, experts say. For example, if a disproportionate number of older and sicker people sign up for marketplace coverage, it will increase insurers’ costs, and companies may pass along some of this increase to policyholders. Consumers will be informed of 2015 premium prices during open enrollment next fall, which will run Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, 2014, when they will have the option of switching plans …
The (future) stability of premium prices for an entire calendar year will be a godsend for people like me who have already had 2 rate hikes each calendar year from their carriers (abt 3 each year since March 2010, when the ACA became law).
Now, since insureds can freely move from one plan on the exchange to another during each annual open-enrollment period, each carrier on the exchange who is consideration raising their rates has to balance those considerations with a proportionate loss of policyholders to another plan if their proposed rate hikes will render them “not competitive” with the other plans to choose from in a given locale.
Oh, and this is all the more reason to sign up for a PPO with a larger deductible (plans which fewer “sick” people or people with chronic conditions will likely sign up for). Hopefully, the few PPOs on the exchanges will have less rate hikes and their longtime policyholders will get more value for their money.
… Each state will have a health-insurance marketplace, and people must sign up for insurance in the state of their primary residence. Plans will include coverage for any emergencies that happen when you’re traveling out-of-state…
These are fascinating “facts.” I’ll be chomping at the bit to find out more about how all these (cheap) “EPOs” (yes, featured on all states’ exchanges who allow them) are going to actually “cover” emergency services while traveling. So far, that’s not what I’ve seen on the exchange websites OR on the carriers’ own websites. I’m not convinced that the MSM is getting the “straight scoop” on this issue … sufficient as to make such a blanket statement.
And what if one gets in the middle of, say, KS, intending to spend a week or two in mid-June and finds out they are horribly allergic to the poppies that grow wild in every cornfield? Will seeing and ENT or allergist there and getting a prescription be considered an “emergency?”
My OWN kids’ experience with using Sharp Healthcare (“EPOs”) while going to college in another county of CA or needing care and even emergency surgery while traveling has borne out differently. They were forced to have mom process and monitor claims to their secondary carrier (Tricare Standard) for months on end and have mom and dad cover Tricare’s deductibles and hefty coinsurance payments (20-25%). Sharp Healthcare (both PPO and HMO) was virtually worthless outside of SD County. This is why my youngest will get on Tricare Prime (premium for age 18-26 currently set at $422 yr) before they ever set foot out of SD County..
Again, choose wisely, folks. The devil is in the details :=0
