State health exchanges open Oct. 1 [The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky.]

Sept. 21--ASHLAND -- With just more than a week to go before Kentucky's health insurance marketplace opens, there are a lot of unknowns.

For individuals like Shannon Kinder, 38, who is uninsured, the only unknown that matters is what coverage plans are going to cost. No one will know until Oct. 1, when Kentucky's health exchange opens. Then, after months of waiting, Kinder will finally get some answers.

"I'm scared," she said Friday.

Kinder was among the more than 20 individuals who attended an informational event on Kentucky's health care benefit exchange, kynect, on Friday afternoon at the main branch of the Boyd County Public Library. Under the Affordable Care Act, health benefit exchanges are required to be operating in every state by the end of 2013.

In Kentucky, open enrollment for private insurance plans offered through kynect: Kentucky's Healthcare Connection, begins Oct1. For coverage beginning Jan. 1, 2014, enrollment will close Dec. 15, but individuals have until March 31, 2014, to enroll in plans for the remainder of that calendar year.

Mary Volkerding, a community relations representative with Kentucky Health Cooperative, a non-profit health insurance company among those offering plans on the exchange, led Friday's discussion. Volkerding, along with the help of Marcus Woodward, a local insurance agent appointed to the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange board of directors, and several other local insurance brokers spent 90 minutes answering individual questions and dispelling myths about the new law and the exchanges.

There were a lot of questions, ranging from how income levels will be calculated for individuals and families to how plans will be ranked in terms of coverage for the cost. Some were easier to answer than others.

Under the ACA, all insurance plans will have to cover doctor visits, hospitalizations, maternity and emergency room care and prescriptions. Coverage can no longer be denied for pre-existing conditions and preventive screenings no longer count toward the deductible on a plan.

Among the most important thing potential buyers need to know about kynect, they said, is that individuals can use it to compare plans, find out if they qualify for Medicaid expansion, premium assistance and to have their questions answered through a variety of mediums, whether online, in person or through a toll-free information center.

Woodward and other insurance agents also repeatedly encouraged attendees to talk to someone about their individual needs before purchasing coverage through the exchange or elsewhere.

"You are going to need some help and it doesn't cost anything. It costs you the same whether you get help or not," he said, noting premiums already include the cost of educating buyers.

"There are some changes, and some hidden things. There is some potential confusion. Look at it, be careful, make no hasty decisions and be deliberate. You have plenty of time to do it," he added.

That advice did help ease some of the anxiety felt by Kinder and others.

"Just hearing them say, that you might find this better than you think it is. Don't freak out, be patient and shop around, I'm starting to get a little more comfortable," she said after the session. "I'm still uneasy. You are uneasy of the unknown. Every one is afraid of the unknown -- and change," Kinder added.

"I'm still going to be nervous until I see what is out there," she added.

Gary and Pat Ingram, a couple in their 60s, also left with fewer questions and a clearer picture of what Oct. 1 may hold.

"I'm pretty comfortable with it, but this was not the first meeting I've been to," Gary Ingram said, adding he's attended three other seminars. Ingram said he also "turned off the television" to escape the bitter partisan bickering over the impending reforms and seek out information.</p>

"I'm just like everybody else; insurance costs have gone completely out of the roof... something has to be done and I don't know if this is the answer, but I'm hoping it is the answer," he said.

"I'm hoping I will qualify for something," Pat Ingram said, explaining she's looking to the exchange to help lower her insurance costs.

He is on Medicare but she is covered under his employer's plan. Last year, the insurance premiums jumped and, because Mrs. Ingram had knee replacement surgery before she turned 60, no other insurance plan would even offer her a policy.

Under the ACA, insurance companies will no longer be able to discriminate on the basis of pre-existing conditions. The question that can't be answered until Oct. 1 is how that new guarantee and a slate of other reforms will affect affordability for the Ingrams and others.

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