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    Millions May Qualify for Special Enrollment

    January 19, 2018
    As you know, the Affordable Care Act gives people the opportunity to purchase or change health coverage during the ACA’s individual open enrollment period. And, as you also know, the 2018 open enrollment period was only half as long as last year’s. For 2017 plans, people had three months to sign up; for 2018, they only had six weeks. The open enrollment period officially closed December 15, 2017.
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    Status of the Individual and Employer Mandates

    January 8, 2018
    When the Affordable Care Act was signed into law nearly eight years ago, there was a lot of criticism about a number of different provisions. Some said that the guaranteed issue rule, while noble in its goal to allow anyone who wants health insurance to buy health insurance, would lead to adverse selection and higher insurance rates. Others said that the premium tax credits and expanded Medicaid would blow up the budget. And still others said that the modified adjusted community rating provision would hurt a carrier’s ability to rate based on risk. Even with all that criticism, it could be argued that the two most controversial and unpopular provisions of the massive health care law were the individual and employer mandates. And now, eight years later, those two provisions are both in the news again.
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    CVS to Purchase Aetna

    January 5, 2018
    By now you’ve certainly heard the news: CVS has announced plans to purchase Aetna for a record $69 billion, the largest-ever merger in the health insurance industry. CVS currently has roughly 10,000 pharmacies, and, if approved, the deal would allow the pharmacy giant to offer health care services and prescriptions to Aetna’s 22 million members.
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    2017 Year-End Wrap Up

    December 27, 2017
    As we near the end of another year, it’s time to close the books on 2017 and look ahead to 2018. As we do, it’s helpful to review the big news stories from the last 12 months and determine whether they’ll carry over to the next calendar year or just be interesting moments in history that we can look back on but stop worrying about.
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    What type of coverage do you have?

    December 21, 2017
    We know—that’s a weird question, but it is a relevant one. Insurance agents don’t just sell individual and group health insurance policies; most are also covered by one. And that means that many of you are facing the same challenges that your clients have: finding an affordable plan that protects you from financial loss and covers your doctor visits and prescriptions. The trouble is, plans that check off all of these requirements are pretty rare, so you probably have to make some of the same sacrifices as your clients.
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    New People Are Signing Up For Marketplace Coverage

    December 4, 2017
    In the insurance industry, we all know that the main reason to purchase health insurance is because we’re unable to predict the future. Unexpected and potentially catastrophic injuries and illnesses do happen, and when they do, people with health insurance tend to fare much better financially than those without.
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    The Medical-Dental Connection

    December 1, 2017
    As a general rule, people don’t like health insurance. It’s confusing, the premiums are difficult for many people to afford, and those without serious or chronic conditions may never hit the deductible, reducing their perceived value of the plan.
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    One Last Political Update (for now…)

    November 22, 2017
    What a crazy summer it’s been for the health insurance industry. Since it appears the “repeal and replace” efforts are done — for now, anyway — we thought we’d provide a quick recap of what happened and, more importantly, what didn’t’ happen. We’d also like to take a look at what happens next. After all, we’re entering the Open Enrollment period for the individual market, and this one promises to be unlike any we’ve seen before.
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    What’s the latest on the Cost Sharing Subsidies?

    November 16, 2017
    With all of the news about the CSR (Cost Sharing Reduction) payments, which President Trump halted on October 12, your clients are probably asking you to explain what exactly happened and, more importantly, how it affects them. It’s easy to understand why they might be confused—this is a political issue, so many of the reports on the topic are one-sided arguments from people who may have their own agenda.
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    Does your computer autocorrect HSA? Here’s the fix.

    November 6, 2017
    As the number of Health Savings Accounts has increased in recent years, agents across the country have become increasingly frustrated with the way their computers “autocorrect” the letters “HSA,” converting the acronym to an all-cap version of the word “HAS.” It’s annoying, isn’t it?
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