Dive Brief:
- The Aritzona Department of Insurance has announced that consumers with non-ACA-compliant individual health policies will not be able to renew them after January 1, despite President Obama's urging states to allow such renewals.
- Instead, the DOI, which has final say in this matter, is encouraging the state's health plans to allow renewal of existing non-conforming policies for another year term before the year's end.
- Some insurers are already on board. For example, Blue Cross Blue Shield is offering early renewals to about 55,000 individual policyholders.
Dive Insight:
Things are going to get very chaotic for the next few months as states make their choices as to whether non-ACA-conforming plans must be renewed this year or later. Doubtless, the health plans involved aren't happy campers, as insurers loathe instability in the markets they serve. And it's no wonder: after all, instability often nets out to big expenses. Bottom line, the next four months or so are going to be something of a cliff-hanger for the health insurance industry.