The Basics of the Affordable Care Act
Is Health Care Reform just what the doctor ordered? The Affordable Care Act includes many provisions designed to help consumers obtain health insurance either through the exchange or free market. The law is meant to give access to health insurance while at the same time control costs. Here are the key provisions that will impact […]
Health Insurance Plans Outside the Exchange
Exchange, no exchange, where will you be getting your health insurance? Right now, most of the national carriers have decided to have limited participation inside the health insurance exchange. In Indianapolis’s Health Insurance Exchange, we are only seeing four carriers that have submitted plans to participate inside the exchange. The only carrier that will be selling exchange […]
Health Insurance Plans Through the Exchange
The new health insurance plans for the Federal Facilitated Exchange have been submitted to the Indianapolis Department of Insurance. Once the IDOI approves them, they will need approval from the Federal Government. Indianapolis is fortunate that you can pull the plan designs from the IDOI website. So what are the plan designs looking like? The […]
Health Insurance Rates
Recently, there have been publications saying that health insurance rates are going up 72% under Obamacare. For example, here is a story in the Indy Star which explains the that under the mandate, everyone must be covered, including those with pre-existing conditions. If this turns out to be true, it will be quite a shock to the wallets […]
Health Care Reform for Smokers
Are delays become the norm for health care reform? A glitch in the health care reform law might be giving smokers a break from tobacco-use penalties which would cause their premiums to become too expensive. The Obama administration has informed health insurers that there is a problem in the computer system that will limit the penalties the insurers […]
Status of Obamacare for Hoosiers
Usually, I don’t like to use the term “Obamacare” but it seems that most Hoosiers know of the Affordable Care Act by that terminology. Right now, Health Care Reform looks like it is starting to unravel. The announcement of the delay in the employer mandate raised concerns. On one side, it looks like the administration […]
Employer Mandate Delayed Until 2015
One of the main points of the health insurance reform law was the employer mandate. The Employer Mandate is a requirement for companies with over (or the equivalent of) 50 full time employees to provide group health insurance. If the group does not provide health insurance, they would pay a $2,000 penalty per full time […]
Adjusted Community Rating For Health Insurance
One of the key aspects of the new health care law is the Adjusted Community Rating. Currently, the health insurance industry uses gender, medical history, group size, and health status. These underwriting practices will be prohibited in 2014. With the new law, health insurers in the individual and small group markets will only be able […]
Medical Mutual to Exit Indiana Market
Medical Mutual of Ohio has decided to exit the Indianapolis market for group and individual health insurance. This is a real blow to competition in the small group and individual health insurance market. Medical Mutual was a good carrier in the small group market, which gave a nice level of competition to the national carriers. They […]
Less Than 100 Days Before The Exchanges Open!
We’re less than 100 days away from the Indianapolis Federal Facilitated Exchange opening. There are two very big things that need to happen before October for the exchanges to be fully operational. The first one is from a technical standpoint; the government still needs to complete the infrastructure of the exchange. This will enable government […]
