Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Let there be snark.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

The revolution will be supervised.

Infrastructure week. at last.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I really should read my own blog.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / Automatic Re-enrollment and the ACA

Automatic Re-enrollment and the ACA

by | 7 Comments

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The first big milestone in the ACA Open Enrollment period is next Thursday night.  If you want coverage that starts on January 1, 2023, you need to select your plan by 11:59PM local time.  You’ll then have two weeks to make arrangements to make the first payment if you either choose a non-zero premium plan or you choose a different insurer or you transition from a zero premium plan to a not zero premium plan at the same insurer.

One of the critical things that people who are currently enrolled SHOULD DO is actively go into the Healthcare.gov or state marketplace account and make an active choice.  Insurers are currently in the process of mapping current enrollee to 2023 plans or already placed people into default 2023 plans depending on the state you’re in. These defaults, in most states, are fairly crude matches that don’t take into account premium or other comprehensive revealed preferences.

So look around even if you’re pretty happy with your plan and your premium this year.  An automatic default plan might not have the same premium next year as it does this year.  Sometimes it will be cheaper.  It may be more expensive; occasionally a lot more expensive (manuscript under development right now).  So look around!

 

 

Reader Interactions

7Comments

  1. 1.

    Ohio Mom

    Thanks. I forwarded to a few youngsters I know who don’t yet have jobs that provide health coverage — they are the prototypical gig economy workers.

    As for me, I enjoy that I personally don’t need to know any details about the ACA enrollment. Wading through my Medicare options is enough.

  2. 2.

    Butch

    I re-enrolled us several weeks ago but we’re still getting e-mails telling us we haven’t made a choice yet.  I called the Healthcare.gov telephone line and was told we’re fine.  Are we OK?

  3. 3.

    Miss Bianca

    I went through a broker and enrolled in a different plan. Still got a “hi, do you want to re-enroll?” notice from my current insurers.

  4. 4.

    AM in NC

    Hi David,

    I have a question about the options on the NC exchange.  My husband and I sold our business this year and are going onto the exchange for the first time.  We have always had BCBSNC (either as a UNC employee or as our business’s policy), but it looks like, of the exchange options,  Aetna/CVS covers the providers we want.

    We have two questions:

    1. do you have any intel on whether Aetna is a decent company or are they a nightmare to deal with (we have not had issues with the BCBSNC plans we have had)
    2. It looks to us like the main differences between levels of plans has to do with payment breakdowns (premiums vs. deductibles vs. copays vs. max out of pocket, and how you mix each of those), primarily, and is not based on what is actually covered (except medications).  Is my husband just reading that wrong, and should we be looking more carefully at coverage from the major plans?

    The number of policy options offered is insane. This is not a reasonable way to get people the medical coverage/care we need.  And my husband has more experience in this than most, as he worked with our broker over the years to select our company policy.  How do people with only limited educations begin to wade through this?

    Not sure if you can answer, but thank you for your posts because they are helpful!!!!

  5. 5.

    David Anderson

    @AM in NC: Hi AM —

    Congrats.

     

    Aetna is fine as a company.  It has it quirks but its business strategy is not to actively screw you over.

    And yes, within the same company, what is covered is almost always a constant but the cost of coverage will vary.  The big thing to pay attention to will be the network.  It is not unusual for an insurer to offer multiple networks (sets of doctors and hospitals you can use) in the same area with the same cost-sharing design @ the same metal level.

     

    So make sure the network (the docs/hospitals) are right and you should be in OKAY-ish shape.

  6. 6.

    AM in NC

    @David Anderson:  Thank you, David!  That’s kind of what we thought, but this is so far out of our bailiwick, it is good to have some actual knowledge slapped on us.

  7. 7.

    PaulB

    I re-enrolled a week ago. I did end up picking the same company but I made sure to review my options. Sadly, my premiums have increased by around 40%. I double-checked, and there are massive increases across the board here in Washington State, regardless of level and regardless of company.

    I’m going to be very happy when I’m finally eligible for Medicare.

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