HELENA – In Montana, as many as 20,000 holders of individual health insurance are getting or will get letters from insurers saying their current policy doesn’t comply with "Obamacare" regulations, and is being “discontinued.“
But insurers say the letter is not a cancellation, and that they’re instructing those policyholders how to get comparable coverage, which may or may not cost more.
“It’s important to note that we are not dropping members from their coverage,” said John Doran, director of strategic marketing services for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana. “Our goal is to provide customers with as many options as possible.”
The letters, which are being sent by insurers not only in Montana, but also across the country, have sparked a national outcry from critics of the Affordable Care Act.
They say the letters contradict President Barack Obama’s earlier promise that the ACA, also known as Obamacare, would allow people to keep their current health coverage, if they wanted to.
“We told you Obama’s ‘If you like your health insurance, you can keep it’ promise was false,” Montana Republican Party Chairman Will Deschamps said Wednesday. “We told you Montanans would lose their insurance coverage.”
Under the ACA, virtually all health insurance policies must offer a set of “essential benefits,” starting next year.
Most current policies don’t meet these requirements, so insurers are discontinuing those policies and offering new, ACA-compliant policies for 2014. For some customers, the new policies will be more expensive because they have more generous coverage.
For example, the ACA prohibits policies with extremely high deductibles or high out-of-pocket costs. If a customer has to buy a plan with a lower deductible or lower out-of-pocket costs, the premium likely will be higher.
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