by Leslie Small
Idaho Blue Cross is now offering short-term health insurance
plans that fall somewhere between more robust Affordable Care Act (ACA)
policies and traditional, leaner temporary coverage options. Soon, the insurer
won't be the only one selling what Idaho calls "enhanced short-term
plans," as the state is in the process of approving new offerings from
SelectHealth, says Dean Cameron, director of the Idaho Dept. of Insurance.
Cameron tells AIS Health that this new category of plans is
aimed at attracting people who don't qualify for ACA subsidies and thus can’t
afford on-exchange insurance options.
Blue Cross of Idaho's new Access plans come in three tiers:
Protector, Safeguard and Secure. All tiers' rates vary based on health status,
unlike ACA plans, and they also include a 12-month waiting period for the
treatment of pre-existing conditions that occurred or were treated within six
months of the start date of the plan.
While the state's Dept. of Insurance has not yet released rates
for the new enhanced short-term plans, Blue Cross of Idaho says on its website
that the Access plans will offer premiums that are up to 40% lower than ACA
plans.
To Chris Sloan, an associate principal at Avalere Health, it's
"still kind of an open question" whether Idaho's enhanced short-term
plans will "cannibalize" the state's ACA-compliant market. "It
is an intellectually honest argument to say that this could be an avenue for
increasing access, at least to some part of the insurance market, for some of
these folks who are healthy enough and have [enough] affordability challenges
that they've decided it's not worth buying individual market coverage," he
says.
There is a valid concern, though, that some consumers could opt
for skimpier coverage without being fully educated about the drawbacks, he
points out.
"I think the question is how aggressively do they market
it," says Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at Kaiser Family Foundation.
"They're marketing these plans based on the lowest possible rate you could
get, but that is not necessarily what you're going to face," Pollitz says,
noting enhanced short-term plans' ability to rate for health status.
From
Health Plan Weekly
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