News on individual health insurance could come Monday
Kreidler announced last week that no insurance providers have signed up to offer individual health insurance in two counties --
Some were quick to blame either the existing Obamacare system or uncertainty created by
Whatever the cause, if lawmakers are unable to persuade insurance carriers to return to the individual health care market by early fall, those 2,000-plus
Kreidler has been in meetings for more than a week, attempting to find a way to woo insurers back to
"He had a meeting with most of the insurers (
Monday is a big day in the effort to bring individual health insurance back to
"Monday morning is also when we release the proposed rate changes for insurers, getting all those finalized," said Marquis. "And there is a work session about individual health insurance in the
Also, a letter was sent to all individual health insurance providers soon after it was discovered none would be offering plans in
Kreidler's role
The Insurance Commissioner has some power to control how insurers operate within the state, but it stops short at having the authority to force them to supply coverage to specific counties.
"But there are requirements we have to oversee one of the primary issues, which is network access," said Marquis. "We have standards for what type of providers they have in their provider network, so we may have some flexibility there."
Provider networks can be complicated, especially in rural counties. For instance, in
Senators
Walsh weighs House action
Rep.
"When a county gets down to zero or even one provider, we would allow insurers to offer only Bronze and Catastrophic plans," he said. This would eliminate the Platinum and Gold level plans, where the premiums are higher but the plan pays 80 to 90 percent of your medical costs. The Bronze and Catastrophic premiums are lower but the coverage amount for treatment drops significantly; these plans are the least costly for insurance carriers.
Walsh said the
The bill says, in part, that in any county where one or fewer insurers sign to provide individual health care, the commissioner must extend the filing deadline by at least 60 days for plans to be offered in that county. It goes on to say it intends to reduce state health insurance mandates in counties with one or fewer health plans offered in the individual market in order to incentivize insurers to re-enter the marketplace and revitalize competition and consumer choice. Walsh said major factors for the drop in insurance carriers in the county include increasing premiums, decreasing carrier participation, and what he calls excessive health insurance mandates upon carriers that give them little incentive to stay.
"What your readers need to know is there is still time to fix this before 2018," said Walsh.
"Although we don't anticipate that this reduction in healthcare coverage will have a significant impact on operations at Summit Pacific at this time, we will continue to monitor the situation," said
According to Martin,
"We have several programs in place to assist in making healthcare services affordable to those in our community, including our Community Care Financial Assistance program and our Property Tax Credit for those living within our hospital district boundaries," he said.
___
(c)2017 The Daily World, Aberdeen, Wash.
Visit The Daily World, Aberdeen, Wash. at thedailyworld.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Summer “trips” lead to accident claims
TrueMotion Forms Telematics Alliance with LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News