As the federal government prepares for the second open-enrollment period of the healthcare marketplaces, they face a number of new challenges as they seek to meet two huge objectives.
The Obama administration is teaming with states and insurance companies to reach patients who don’t have insurance through their employer or a spouse and who did not enroll in a qualifying health care plan during last year’s enrollment period. Hold-out consumers will be more difficult to reach than last year, as many of them had the opportunity to enroll last year and refused for a variety of reasons.
This year’s additional challenge will be to help current enrollees navigate the renewal and reenrollment processes. Individual state-run marketplaces vary in their approaches, with some offering automatic renewal and others requiring consumers to re-enroll on the marketplace site. Consumers using the federal exchange will receive notices with automatic renewal information this month, with 2015 rates to follow from individual insurers in November.
While many consumers will qualify for the same coverage that they already have, it would still be wise for enrollees to visit the site and update their information to determine ongoing eligibility. As was the case during last year’s enrollment, a change in income or situation later can affect consumers’ subsidies.
A number of challenges exist for officials working to meet these parallel goals, including a shorter enrollment period (three months versus the six months offered last year) and ongoing concerns about the ability of the HealthCare.gov site to handle high traffic volumes.
One particular challenge will be convincing the hold-outs mentioned above that purchasing healthcare is both affordable and valuable and helping them to navigate the world of health insurance. In-person and online assistance are both available to consumers who need help.
2015 will be a benchmark year for the ACA, as it also marks the first deadline involving the employer mandate. As of January 1, employers with 100 or more employees classified as full-time will be required to offer an affordable and compliant healthcare plan to at least 70 percent of their employees or face steep penalties.
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