Admin Said to Be Eyeing Insurance Extension

AllenChicago, you are correct about those small group renewals coming up. I'm working on some cases right now that are 22% to 46% rate increases. If they thought it was massive to have 17 million in the IFP market lose their coverage, let's now worry about the 77 million in the small group market! All of those Non-GF plans will be renewing out of pre-ACA plans in to ACA throughout the year.
 
AllenChicago, you are correct about those small group renewals coming up. I'm working on some cases right now that are 22% to 46% rate increases. If they thought it was massive to have 17 million in the IFP market lose their coverage, let's now worry about the 77 million in the small group market! All of those Non-GF plans will be renewing out of pre-ACA plans in to ACA throughout the year.

Market target!!! And everyone thought lock in would not be productive! Now who is good enough to capture?
 
with such a long extension, will every plan effective before January 1st 2014 now officially be considered grandfathered?
 
I've been expecting this since the first extension and it is the fair thing to do.

The plans that were supposed to be cancelled were those written after ACA was passed and they are overall much more solid that the plans that were Grandfathered.

This would be great news for me as it would keep my current book active for a very long time and lock in my renewal income. I have no need to move people from plans with 4% renewal comp to plans with new 1st year but either 2% or 1% after that.

This is pretty much the only thing the administration can do to save some face. They will most likely have to heavily reimburse insurers for losses on ACA plans but will save tons of money, most likely, on subsidies and that will offset some of the cost.

It would still be a mess but at this point in time all agents can do is look out for themselves while doing the best thing possible for their clients, no one else is going to watch our backs.
 
with such a long extension, will every plan effective before January 1st 2014 now officially be considered grandfathered?

It appears to be the insinuation. The grandfathering clause was originally over restrictive and resulted in the cancellations, so they reversed course and allowed plans from 2013 to continue.

Problem is, as we all know, they were already filed and approved to be cancelled half a year prior. No rates, no apps, and no product filed. It can't come from thin air, so it was an empty political move to save face (as we pointed out on these forums many times). There were some plans that were still available, but that was the exception, not the rule.

Most likely, this rule will just be a token law that lets the few plans still out there die a longer death.

There is a chance that the gov't will write this rule in a way that lets carriers re-file 2013 product that was termed in the May 2014 filing for a 1/1/15 effective. That's much less likely, and even less likely to be honored by carriers in my opinion, but it is what the vibe you get reading the reports.
 
It appears to be the insinuation. The grandfathering clause was originally over restrictive and resulted in the cancellations, so they reversed course and allowed plans from 2013 to continue.

Problem is, as we all know, they were already filed and approved to be cancelled half a year prior. No rates, no apps, and no product filed. It can't come from thin air, so it was an empty political move to save face (as we pointed out on these forums many times). There were some plans that were still available, but that was the exception, not the rule.

Most likely, this rule will just be a token law that lets the few plans still out there die a longer death.

There is a chance that the gov't will write this rule in a way that lets carriers re-file 2013 product that was termed in the May 2014 filing for a 1/1/15 effective. That's much less likely, and even less likely to be honored by carriers in my opinion, but it is what the vibe you get reading the reports.

This isn't the case in Florida at all.

Every one of my clients who wanted to keep their plan in 2013 was able to extend it to through the end of 2014 and this includes every major insurance company in the state, including Florida Blue.

It takes no effort on the part of the insurance company (other than calculating a renewal premium) to extend these plans for as long as they are allowed (which should be for as long as the client wishes to keep it).

Every company other than Blue had already planned for the early renewal and extension before the change and Blue was able to clarify their policy on existing plans within a week.

Insurance companies could choose to terminate these plans at the next renewal but why would they and walk away from revenue on what is mostly a healthy client base with minimal claims, particularly since those people are better served with 2014 plans.
 
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