The Millions of Uninsured Consumers Who Missed the Obamacare Open Enrollment Still Have Options

PR Newswire

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The open enrollment period for Obamacare ended last week, a full six weeks earlier than last year. Due to the shortened period and escalating monthly premiums for the unsubsidized, millions of consumers remain uninsured. For these uninsured consumers, there are Obamacare alternatives available that do not have restrictive enrollment windows and often come with a much more affordable monthly payment.

There are three well-established alternative forms of healthcare coverage that consumers can apply for year round: short-term health insurance, healthcare sharing ministry plans, and health benefit insurance:

Short -Term Health Insurance is a form of major medical insurance designed to bridge gaps between other forms of health coverage, and has been offered by major insurance companies such as UnitedHealthCare® for over three decades. Like other major medical health plans, short-term health plans include coverage for doctor and specialist visits, hospitalization, emergency care, and lab tests. Healthcare research shows that most consumers can purchase a short-term plan for $100 a month or less, which is around half the costs of an Obamacare plan with a similar deductible level.

Healthcare Sharing Ministries plans are technically not insurance but a group of individuals and families who have joined together to share the cost of healthcare across the group. Members must agree to live by certain religious codes, such as limited tobacco and alcohol use. Generally, these plans do not discriminate based on age, weight, or health history. Members are not limited to any network and may seek providers both in and out of state.

Health Benefit Insurance is a form of indemnity medical insurance and has been offered by insurance companies such as Aflac® for over six decades. Health benefit insurance plans will pay a fixed cash benefit to members in the case of a covered medical event such as a doctor visit or a hospital stay. Health benefit insurance plans are often combined with supplemental insurance products such as accident or critical illness insurance, as well as supplemental non-insurance services such telemedicine.

Consumers should understand that these three alternatives are different from Obamacare in scope of benefits. For example, they generally do not cover pre-existing health conditions and may not offer all of the ten essential health benefits required by an Obamacare plan (such as maternity benefits and pediatric dental care). Additionally, purchasing a short-term health plan or a health benefit insurance plan alone will not satisfy the Affordable Care Act insurance mandate, resulting in the potential for a tax penalty unless the consumer otherwise qualifies for an exception to the penalty.

AgileHealthInsurance and HealthPocket are the registered trademarks of HealthPocket, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used herein for identification purposes only; such use does not imply endorsement.

AgileHealthInsurance.com was created to educate people about the benefits of short-term health insurance and provide a fast, online process for purchasing these plans. Short-term health insurance is a flexible and low-cost major medical insurance for individuals without expensive pre-existing health conditions. It is not Obamacare. Short-term health plans offer consumers the flexibility to choose health plans with the benefits that matter most to them and combine these benefits with broad provider networks. Additional information about AgileHealthInsurance can be found at www.AgileHealthInsurance.com.

On October 12, 2017, President Trump issued Executive Order Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States. The order requires the Secretaries of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to propose, or revise, regulations to expand the use of short-term health coverage.

AgileHealthInsurance is a Silicon Valley-based technology company and independently managed division of Health Insurance Innovations, Inc. (Nasdaq: HIIQ). This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical fact, and may include statements relating to goals, plans and projections regarding new markets, products, services, growth strategies, anticipated trends in our business and anticipated changes and developments in the United States health insurance system and laws. Forward-looking statements are based on our current assumptions, expectations and beliefs are generally identifiable by use of words "may," "might," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential" or "continue," or similar expressions and involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, our ability to maintain relationships and develop new relationships with health insurance carriers and distributors, our ability to retain our members, the demand for our products, the amount of commissions paid to us or changes in health insurance plan pricing practices, our ability to integrate our acquisitions, competition, changes and developments in the United States health insurance system and laws, and our ability to adapt to them, the ability to maintain and enhance our name recognition, difficulties arising from acquisitions or other strategic transactions, and our ability to build the necessary infrastructure and processes to maintain effective controls over financial reporting. These and other risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements are discussed in HIIQ's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as other documents that may be filed by HIIQ from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. You should not rely on any forward-looking statement as representing our views in the future. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

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