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No state will be safe from higher health insurance premiums in 2019, according to a report from Covered California released earlier this year. While registration for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) doesn’t open again until later in 2018, predictions for the premium increase range from 12% to 32%, while others say it could be as high as 50%.
“The majority of people that are subsidized don’t really see much of the increase at all,” said Eric Wilson, principal of Wilson Associates. “For those that are unsubsidized, it’s a whole different animal. They’re the ones that really get hurt by this law and by this situation.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stated that ACA enrolment remained strong this year, and only experienced a drop of 3% over last year. Nonetheless, healthcare insurance alternatives to the ACA exist and interest for these products is growing, said Wilson.
“Indemnity products have become very popular in the last 24 months. An indemnity plan – a fixed benefit plan – is a good option, too,” he explained, adding that customers should be shopping around for these products before disaster strikes. “If you’re having a heart attack, you don’t have time to say, ‘what’s this going to cost?’”
Insurance professionals can lend a hand as clients go through the vetting process to find a plan that works for them. Alternatives to ACA, for example, can be cost-effective options for people in their 50s and 60s, and those in their 20s.
“You have to get rid of the cookie-cutter approach and talk to each client, and understand their healthcare needs,” said Wilson. “Some people are sicker than others. If you have someone who’s very sick, they need an Affordable Care Act plan. If you have someone who is very healthy, their healthcare needs are not as great, so they can do other things. If you have someone who is on a lot of medication, you got to find a plan with the best drug plan. Short-term plans, and indemnity plans typically have no prescription drug coverage, so they’d be the wrong plan for those types of people.”
Wilson doesn’t see the strife on the hill over ACA ending anytime soon.
“They’ve tried to repeal it and unfortunately, this law has become very political. You have the left side and the right side of the aisle, and I don’t think either side is really doing the best thing for the American people,” he told Insurance Business.
“There’s a lot of us that aren’t currently buying insurance still. More than 12 million Americans last year qualified for an exemption and another 7 million chose just to pay the penalty, so that’s almost 20 million people that are not involved in the ACA plans.”
