Open enrollment nears for ACA exchanges
Half as many insurers are selling plans, which will cost 34 percent more.
It will be a challenging open enrollment period for people that plan to buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
This year’s open enrollment from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15 features higher prices, fewer choices and less time to spend making a choice on which plan to get.
On average, premiums will cost about 34 percent more in Ohio next year and there will be half as many insurers selling plans. Around 243,000 people last year in Ohio signed up for insurance offered through the ACA, which is also referred to as Obamacare.
About 11 percent of the increase is because the Ohio Department of Insurance required insurance companies to assume that payments will end from the federal government to subsidize lower cost plans.
Costs had been rising before the 11 percent increase because insurance companies have been struggling to get enough young, healthy people to buy insurance in order to subsidize the high costs of health care for older and sicker enrollees.
The Affordable Car Act was signed into law in 2010 and created marketplaces where peo- ple can buy individual or small business plans and income qualified people can get subsidies that lower the cost of co-payments and premiums.
The weighted average pre- mium for an individual mar- ket plan will be $5,798.83 in 2018. That is a 119 percent increase from 2013.
“I think it’s going to affect the younger generation. That 22 to 32 category. They’ve been a hard market to get involved anyway,” said Glenn Hughes, grant project director with Resolute Certified Naviga- tors, which gives one-on-one help for people signing up for Affordable Care Act plans.
Dayton-based CareSource remains primarily a Medic- aid-managed care company but the nonprofit insurer has been growing the side of its business that sells plans on the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
While other insurance companies have lost money selling ACA plans and fled the exchanges, CareSource plans to sell insurance options in 60 counties in Ohio next year, up from 51 counties in 2017. It also will sell plans in 32 counties in West Virginia, 61 in Kentucky and 79 in Indiana.
Despite the uncertain polit- ical climate surrounding the health law, CareSource said in a statement that it remains committed to serving unin- sured populations with access to affordable care.
“We understand how important health care is to individuals and their families and we’ve seen the impact health and well-being has on governmental dependency and economic stability. We remain committed to the Marketplace and those who have trusted us to provide them with health care coverage,” the company said.
CareSource officials recommended people with ACA insurance plans make sure that their insurer has not left the marketplace and that they research and shop around early to find the plan with the best value. People should assess their life circumstances when looking at what is the right coverage and the right premium, the nonprofit advised.
“CareSource remains com- mitted to the Marketplace and the thousands of mem- bers we currently serve. It’s our mission to serve consumers and that has been our goal since we entered the Marketplace,” it stated.
If residents want help signing up for insurance plans sold on the exchanges, they can get one-on-one help from programs with feder- ally funded “navigators” that can walk through the available options to chose from.
However, outreach programs run by navigators are facing sharp budget cuts this enrollment season.
The Ohio Association of Foodbanks, which had been the biggest receiver of navigator funding in Ohio, dropped its navigator program after its funding was cut 71 percent, down from $1.7 million to about $486,000.
Resolute Certified Navigators is the local navigator service that serves a 15 county area in western Ohio, and it also got a 71 percent of its funding for regional outreach, knocking it down to a $39,000 budget, said Hughes.
Hughes said he expects the insurance navigators will see people who are concerned about the news about the federal government ending subsidies to cover the cost of exchange plans.