2017 Healthcare Insurance Changes You Should Know
1.) It is NO longer mandatory that you HAVE to have healthcare insurance that meets the minimum essential requirements or any at all. Prior to Trump taking office, the previous administration required you to have health insurance that met MEC (Minimum Essential Coverage).
- Citing Trump’s Order, IRS Stops Enforcing Individual Mandate for Health Insurance. “The U.S. Internal Revenue Service will no longer require tax filers to indicate whether they had health coverage or paid a penalty set under Obamacare. Republican President Donald Trump, who has pledged to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act, signed an order on Jan. 20, his first day in office, to freeze regulations and take other steps.” http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2017/02/16/442006.htm
- For more information on reporting MEC: https://www.irs.gov/affordable-care-act/individuals-and-families/individual-shared-responsibility-provision
- For more information on the Executive Order: https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/economics/major-blow-obamacare-mandate/
2.). New rules on the Non-Obamacare Major Medical started on April 1 2017, there are NEW products for Non-Obamacare Plans (for people who do NOT have major pre-existing conditions).
3.) For ONLY Obamacare Plans (ACA), Open Enrollment has been cut in half for 2017. Open enrollment normally went from November 1st – January 31st, THIS coming year Open Enrollment it will start on November 1st and finish up on December 15th.
Recent statistics related to the Affordable Care Act: With no repeal and replacement for Obamacare, estimates now predict 2020 the earliest before any changes to the current health insurance structure (assuming a replacement can be in place this year).
– Approximately one-third of counties in the U.S. have only one insurer participating in their exchange for 2017.
– Five states have only one insurer participating in their exchange for 2017.
– The premium for the benchmark second-lowest cost “silver plan” on Healthcare.gov increased by an average of 25 percent from 2016-2017.
– Approximately 500,000 fewer Americans selected a plan in the exchange open enrollment in 2017 than in 2016.
– Many states saw double digit increases in their insurance premiums including:
AZ – 116%
OK – 69%
TN – 63%
AL – 58%
PA – 53%