YOUR MONEY-Is it too late to get your old healthcare plan back?
Our very own James Eckardt, RHU was featured in a Reuters article about health insurance and President Barack Obama’s newest Affordable Care Act speech.
“Consumers will have to wait until state health insurance commissioners work out what changes can be made – if they make any – and responses are just starting to flow in. Then they can call their existing carriers or insurance agents and ask about the fate of their plans.
James Eckardt, an insurance broker in Medford, New York, is already getting calls. He has dozens of clients who would breathe easier if they could keep their current plans.
The key question remains: will insurers take up the charge and offer the old plans back, or is it too late?
“I don’t know how you can force an insurance company to offer a plan,” says Eckardt. “I don’t see how you can possibly do that.”
For now, Eckardt says he’s just going to keep going forward with the enrollments he was pursuing for his customers, mostly small business groups whose previous policies were discontinued. “I can’t do my business with possible scenarios,” he says.
Insurance choices won’t be final until coverage starts on Jan. 1, so consumers have time to wait, insurance agents say. They can continue to shop for health plans, and just not make final decisions until the last minute.
Eckardt adds that he sees little hope that the carriers in his area want to offer the plans they offered before, and he doesn’t see anything in Obama’s announcement that compels them to.
One of his small business clients, for instance, had a very advantageous plan with zero co-pays that they would love to continue, but Eckardt thinks it unlikely the carrier will let them. “The problem is that it’s too late,” he says.” -Reuters
Read the article here : http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/15/usa-healthcare-cancellations-idUSL2N0IZ1NC20131115