Latest ObamaCare surprise: Most won't be able to buy health insurance until end of year

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

FoxNews.com

A Republican friend of mine posted this on Facebook. I like to go over to her page and needle her periodically.

There is yet another ObamaCare surprise waiting for consumers: from now until the next open enrollment at the end of this year, most people will simply not be able to buy any health insurance at all, even outside the exchanges.

"It's all closed down. You cannot buy a policy that is a qualified policy for the purpose of the ACA (the Affordable Care Act) until next year on January 1," says John DiVito, president of Flexbenefit which has 2,500 brokers.

John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas adds, "People are not going to be able to buy individual and family policies, and that's part of ObamaCare. And what makes it so surprising is the whole point of ObamaCare was to encourage people to get insurance, and now the market has been completely closed down for the next seven months."

That means that with few exceptions, tens of millions of people will be locked out of the health insurance market for the rest of this year.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/08/latest-obamacare-surprise-most-wont-be-able-to-buy-health-insurance-until-end/

[Gman]

1. I VERY seriously doubt this is true.

Can you imagine an insurance company turning down new business? Can you imagine their lobbyists agreeing to this during the crafting if the ACA. I can't either. It's probably something Fox News culled out of a poorly written section.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

5. These guys sit around a table and decide what story they'll make up each day...

by the time there's a response, they're already onto the next lie.

It's like whack-a-mole. But eat it up!

[pnwmom]

15. It IS true but it's not because the ACA won't allow them to sell outside of enrollment periods.

It's because the ACA requires them to accept customers without regard to preexisting conditions. Under those circumstances, the insurers themselves made the decision to not sell outside the enrollment periods. They don't want everyone who gets diagnosed with cancer or hit by a car to come to them because the Exchanges aren't selling till next November.

[Gman]

20. OTOH, everyone had an opportunity to sign up

If they didn't and have no coverage, they chose to do without.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. I googled it

a bunch of right wing sites came up, and nothing else.
which means it's bunk.

[pnwmom]

16. What IS true is that the insurance companies themselves made the decision

to only sell during Exchange enrollment periods. This isn't something required by the ACA.

The ACA does, however, require them to accept all customers, even those with preexisting conditions. They don't want everyone who comes down with an expensive medical condition to come to them because the Exchange isn't enrolling.

[ProSense]

3. Between

"Latest ObamaCare surprise: Most won't be able to buy health insurance until end of year"

...the "sane" Republicans and the RW talking points...it's going to be a long seven months.

Here's some information:

Obamacare Enrollment Is Far From Over
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024764970

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

8. Thanks Pro! Should have known you'd have already addressed this

[ProSense]

14. You're welcome. n/t

[Glorfindel]

4. Why on earth would anyone post a link to Fox "news," regardless of the subject?

I don't understand this at all.

[Freddie]

6. Consider the source...

I believe you can still buy a plan, but you cannot get the subsidy until the new open enrollment season in November, unless you are buying the policy because of a "life event" such as marriage, divorce, birth of child, or loss of your (or your spouse's) employer plan.

[pnwmom]

18. You can't buy a plan if the insurers won't sell them to you.

It's not that the ACA won't allow them to. It's that the insurers themselves decided they don't want to sell them outside of enrollment periods. Why? Because they are required to accept all customers, even those with preexisting conditions. They don't want every customer who can't buy on an exchange -- because it's outside of the enrollment period -- to come to them after they're hit by a car or diagnosed with cancer.

[tarheelsunc]

7. I guess they kept warning people to sign up before the end of March just for laughs or something

The point presumably was for anyone who was planning to sign up to sign up by that deadline so the system would be stabilized and insurers to have some idea of their financial situation. Of course, if you have a life change that would necessitate a new health care option, you can still sign up for that. Anyone in a position of stability who wanted to sign up really has not excuse to not have done it already.

[okaawhatever]

9. Since they removed pre-existing conditions from insurance policies, they had to come up with a way

to protect the ACA from having people not buy a policy, pay the $95 fine and then when they get sick they buy a policy. The way they countered that was to design the plan just like most employer plans. There is an open enrollment period each year, same as Medicare, and then you can also buy when there is a "life event". Life event being, lose job, get married/divorced, have children, adopt children, etc. The enrollment period ended March 31st which they extended until Apr 15th if you attempted to purchase before March 31 but were blocked. Those plans go into effect May 1. You can begin purchasing plans again in November and those plans will take effect Jan 1, 2015.
That is why there was such a big push to purchase the insurance before March 31st. There is a reason they said it was a deadline. However, that is the very same deal as you get through an employer or Medicare. Also, since insurance companies are required to spend .80 of every health care dollar on medical care, they needed a way to determine how and when to give the customers their premiums back. That is why the refund checks were mailed out all at one time last year.
So yes, technically it is true that you can't buy again until Nov for coverage Jan 1, but the plan was designed that way. It was to protect the ACA. Why would most people buy a policy if you could wait until you got sick and then buy one? Also, how else are they going to set pricing and refunds?
People have had months to sign up, so I think if people didn't sign up or didn't hear about the cut-off date it was due to their state not promoting the plan.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

11. Now, if I can condense that info into about 5 words...

that's just too much reading.

[pnwmom]

19. Five words.

The insurers made the decision.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

25. Yeah! That's pretty much what I told her. Only 2 sentences lol

[Ms. Toad]

29. Standard insurance practices.

The ACA uses insurance as a vehicle - so except where the law required it to do otherwise, it is continuing practices which have been around forever.

[DJ13]

10. "John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas adds"

Hollywood hasnt been kind to him since Rosanne...........

[davidpdx]

17. I think Goodman's performance in seasons 4 & 5 of The West Wing

was one of his best. Granted that was a very short stint, but memorable.

[tridim]

27. Uhh, The Big Lebowski? Hello?

[Hoyt]

12. I think open enrollment is over till this fall, much like employer plans. There are some qualifying

circumstances where some folks can buy in interim. Ignorant right wingers know nothing.

[HeiressofBickworth]

13. Similar to Medicare

There is an open-enrollment period once a year for people to change plans (Medicare or Medicare Advantage), if they would like. Otherwise, like another poster said, it takes a life-event (turning 65) to change during the rest of the year. No surprises. It's just the way it works. Why would ACA policies be any different?

[dionysus]

23. yes, 65, or as simple as changing\getting a job or getting married; you get to enroll then.

[deathrind]

21. Fox should be banned.

I am all for free speech but just like yelling fire in a theater is not allowed a company should not be able to present itself as a news source that is "fair and balanced" while blatantly omitting facts or misconstruing them like fox does.

[dionysus]

22. yes, in some cases, like any health care enrollment program. but if you get a new job or

something like that, obviously you can enroll.

another RW lie being spread... sigh...

[WillowTree]

24. That's why they kept calling March 31st a "deadline".

Funny how that works out.

[tridim]

26. Another day, another big lie from Faux Newz.

They won their case, dammit, and they're going to lie.

[Ms. Toad]

28. This is standard practice for all insurance plans which are not health based.

There is one open enrollment period a year. If I miss my open enrollment period at work - tough luck. I am without coverage until the next open enrollment period a year later.

If you have a change in circumstances (get married, have a child, become ineligible for COBRA, lose your job, etc), however, you can enroll in a window around that change in circumstances - just as you could before the ACA.

This has NOTHING to do with the ACA - it is just how insurance which is required to accept all applicants (job, state mandated high risk groups, etc.) works. Otherwise, everyone would wait until they had a big medical expense to buy insurance.

Repeat after me: The ACA did not create insurance. It uses insurance as a vehicle to provide access to heath care for more people. Formularies, open enrollment periods, and other features of standard insurance plans were not created by the ACA, so stop blaming the ACA for practices that are standard in the industry.