Medicare and Obamacare Review Time is Now

Seems like just the other day that we finished enrolling our clients in Medicare and Obamacare plans for 2016 but Open Enrollment for 2017 is right around the corner.  

Here are some important dates to note in your calendars:

Medicare Open Enrollment begins October 15th and runs through December 7th These dates primarily apply to Medicare Advantage Plans and Medicare Prescription Plans (also known as Medicare Part D). If you are covered by a Medicare supplement there are no open enrollment periods other than when you initially join Medicare, move, or lose other coverage. Changes in your Medicare supplement plans are available throughout the year but, in most cases, you will need to answer medical questions in order to qualify for a new plan. IMPORTANT: Medicare supplement plan designs were standardized by the government many years ago. Each plan is designated by a letter, from A through N. When comparing any company’s Plan F, for example, to another company’s plan F there are no differences in benefits but there could be significant differences in costs. So do your research, at least every two years. We now have more than a dozen companies that offer these plans. Obamacare or individual and family health plans Open Enrollment begins November 1st; absolute last deadline is January 31st The deadline for enrolling for coverage starting January 1st is December 15th. However, if your 2016 plan has been cancelled as of December 31st you will be able to enroll for January coverage until December 31st. If you miss the December 15th deadline you will have until January 15th to enroll for coverage beginning on February 1st. The last enrollment deadline is January 31st for coverage beginning March 1st. After that you will need to qualify for a Special Enrollment Period if you need to enroll in a plan before next year’s Open Enrollment. “But I’m already covered, why should I bother looking for another plan?” Four words….Plans Change Every Year. If you are enrolled in a prescription plan or a Medicare Advantage plan you should have already received your “ANOC” in the mail. The ANOC, Annual Notice of Change, is the document that tells you about all of the changes in your plan for the upcoming year. Financial terms of coverage such as copayments, health care network providers, pharmacies, out-of-pocket costs, and more may change every year. Nothing is worse than going to the drugstore in January and being charged $60 for the prescription that cost $4 in December! So let us do your homework for you and research your Medicare options for next year. If you are enrolled in an Obamacare or an individual plan 2017 will see more disruptions in coverage than the previous three years combined! Unless you’re a hermit you have been hearing stories for months about companies dropping out of the market, health cooperatives going out of business, and health care providers refusing to accept many health plans. Well it’s all coming to a head throughout most of the country. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation 38% of all the counties in the country will have only one or two companies in 2017:   As an example, in Maricopa County, which encompasses nearly the entire Phoenix metropolitan area, there were 140 health plans available from more than ten companies in 2014. For 2017 there will be one company and there will only be four plans available in Phoenix! That’s not all…rates will be up significantly (we know of carriers whose rates will be increasing by 50%+ in 2017), out-of-pocket costs will be up, fines for not having “the right plan” are increasing, and provider networks will be more restrictive than ever. “Enough doom and gloom, how about some good news?” OK. There is a silver lining for many of you. We have identified more legal alternatives to Obamacare than ever before. I’m not going to give you long explanations for all of these alternatives listed below (by now you know that I tend to go on a bit), but there are several lower cost, less restrictive options to Obamacare and we will have something for nearly everyone in 2017. For example: Medical cost sharing ministries – a great new option, no Obamacare fines   Minimum Essential Coverage plans – low, low cost, no Obamacare fines   Short-term health  plans – use any provider or hospital   Two-person group plans including those businesses whose only workers are husband and wife – no Obamacare fines   Critical illness plans with benefits up to $250,000 – alone or combined with the above   High limit accident plans – a great supplement for high deductible plans I’m almost through…I’ve always been honest with you and now is no exception. Most companies that offer Obamacare plans have stopped paying brokers like us to assist people with their health care needs. The small handful of companies that still works with brokers pay next to nothing. Of course, the government has no problem awarding huge grants to organizations that pay seasonal, unlicensed navigators $50 per hour to assist with health care choices and they pay hundreds of millions in salary and benefits to the call center workers at healthcare.gov, but brokers like me and our other agents, with a 27-year old health care brokerage…not so much. My point is, that despite what the companies have done to brokers, we will still direct you to the few remaining, Obamacare plans but we will also do our best to make you aware of, and explain in detail, all of your other options. But don’t wait until the last minute. Thousands of brokers have left the health business and their clients will be coming to us and to others who remained in the industry. So we will be working overtime to assist all of you with Medicare and personal health plans for next year. Contact us now so that we can begin the preliminary research that’s needed in order to find you, your family, or your employees the best value in health care for 2017. Thanks for reading.   Alan Leafman