Obamacare enrollment starts in two weeks, with new plans to improve value
It's that time again. Obamacare enrollment season begins on November 1, with a new option for customers on Healthcare.gov: Simple Choice, six new standardized plans that will make comparing plans simpler.
Federal officials say the new option will simplify shopping under the Affordable Care Act by reducing variation among plans, and consumer advocates like the idea. The standardized options will be identified on HealthCare.gov with the label “Simple Choice.” […]
The standardized version of a midlevel silver plan has a $3,500 deductible, but primary care and specialty care visits, outpatient mental health services and prescription drugs are generally exempt from the deductible. In other words, consumers may face co-payments, but they do not have to meet the deductible before the insurance company starts to pay for such services.
On HealthCare.gov, the administration intends to introduce the idea of standardized options by describing Simple Choice as “the easiest way to shop for plans.”
“All Simple Choice plans in the same category (like Silver) have exactly the same core benefits, deductibles and co-payments,” states a message to be displayed on the federal website. “When viewing Simple Choice plans, you can focus on other important features that may be different: monthly premiums, additional services covered, doctor and hospital networks.”
This should definitely help reduce out of pocket costs for customers choosing these plans. The copayments are reasonable—$30 for primary care visits, $65 for specialist visits, $75 for urgent care and $15 for generic drugs. In other plans, full cost of those visits and prescriptions has to be paid by the customer until they've reached their deductible and at $3,500, many people won't reach that in a single year, making their insurance little better than just catastrophic coverage. There's still plenty to be done to make the Affordable Care Act truly affordable for everyone, but this is a smart interim solution—if enough insurance companies agree to offer these standardizes plans. They aren't required to do so.
But here's your friendly reminder that Republicans are still running on Obamacare repeal, from Trump on down. All of those 20 million people who have health insurance now because of the law? Poof. It's gone, and we're back to the bad old days.
Want to end the incessant attacks on Obamacare? Help elect more Democrats to Congress.