LANSING — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan received 350 customer phone calls in just one hour last Thursday during President Barack Obama’s televised announcement on changes to the Affordable Care Act.
Customers wanted to know how they’d be impacted by Obama’s decision to let insurers offer members the option to renew their current plans.
Detroit-based Blue Cross, Michigan’s largest health insurer, doesn’t have the answers yet. It’s up to state insurance Commissioner Ann Flood to decide whether to allow Michigan insurers to extend their current plans — and so far she has not announced a decision.
“An assessment of the impact this change will have on Michigan residents and businesses must be completed before any determinations can be made or conclusions drawn,” Caleb Buhs, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services, said in a statement.
Obama announced the change last week amid mounting criticism for repeatedly telling Americans that they could keep their existing health plans, when in fact many people’s plans are being discontinued because they don’t meet coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
At least 225,000 Michiganders were among millions of people nationwide who buy their own insurance and had received discontinuation notices, according to a count by the Associated Press.
Many of those letters came from Blue Cross, which holds about 55 to 60 percent of the individual market in Michigan. Blue Cross sent letters to most of its 175,000 members who buy their own insurance since their current plans don’t conform to the new law.
Starting in 2014, all individual and small group health plans must offer 10 “essential health benefits,” including mental health, prescription drugs, maternity and newborn care and other services.
These added benefits, along with rating changes and additional taxes and fees, mean many people will see more expensive premiums for 2014. But higher prices could be offset by tax credits for people making certain incomes. And some people could end up getting more robust coverage for less money under Obamacare.
“It’s literally is going to be on a case-by-case or individual-by-individual basis,” said Terry Burke, Blue Cross vice president for individual markets.
Much of those changes could be delayed until at least 2015 if health insurers end up extending current plans under Obama’s new policy.
Priority Health is taking a different approach to coverage for 2014. The Grand Rapids-based insurer got approval to let new and existing customers purchase a 2013 plan that extends through 2014. It’s also offering new, Obamacare-compliant plans for 2014.
So far about 75 percent of its 22,000 individual plan subscribers have renewed 2013 plans, and Priority Health expects to pick up an additional 15 to 20 percent in new customers who take up the offer.
“What we’re getting is a lot of interest in the 2013 plans, particularly from people who got cancellation notices from other carriers,” said Chief Marketing Officer Joan Budden.
Priority Health’s 2013 plans already have many of the same benefits required under the Affordable Care Act, but are less expensive than its new 2014 plans because of taxes, fees, rating changes and minor benefit changes, Budden said.
The recently announced federal policy change would give Priority Health more time to sell its 2013 plans. Budden said she hopes that’s the case, since she thinks the pre-Obamacare plans do a better job of helping consumers get coverage.
Date: November 19, 2013