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Hey, #Massachusetts folks who get your #HealthInsurance through the #HealthConnector!
Big, big changes this open enrollment.
If you make between 300% and 500% of the FLP – so between $43,740 and $72,900 for an individual (or $59,160 to $98,600 for a 2-person family, other ranges for bigger families), most of your choices for health plans have gone away. No bronze, gold, or platinum plans for you. There's a limited set of eight silver plans you have to choose from.
If you were planning on continuing on with the plan you were on, and it's not one of those eight, well, you won't get to, apparently. I'm thinking of giving them a call and asking if I can some how opt out of this and shop like a richer person, but as of right now, the MAHealthConnector is enforcing this without opt out.
This is being heralded as "expanding" ConnectorCare to "reach more people", which I suppose is true in the literal sense that it's branded "ConnectorCare".
Except that ConnectorCare is supposed to be subsidized insurance for the needy, and this has a state subsidy so trivial as to be meaningless.
ConnectorCare was always a trade off: ultra low premiums (thanks to state subsidies) in exchange for having a very narrow range of choices of mediocre coverage. "Do you want to have a small network of doctors you can see, or do you want an infinitesimal network of doctors you can see for even lower premiums?"
Well now, you are being required to accept all the downsides of ConnectorCare with almost no subsidy. You'll be paying a few bucks under list price (less APTC) for ConnectorCare plans.
So what this great achievement in "expanding" coverage looks like from here is a close cousin of regulatory capture.
This looks like a great deal for the insurance companies. #Massachusetts agreed to force #HealthConnector users between 300%-500% of FPL – literally middle-income people – to have to buy really low-value, high-premium shitty silver plans, no doubt in exchange for something. (I'm guessing in exchange for insurance companies being willing to insure the poor. That's usually what the deal is.)
Anyways, anybody getting their insurance through the #Massachusetts #HealthConnector , you might not want to procrastinate logging in to find out what your options are. If your coverage is going away, and you're stuck picking between eight new plans, you might want to know that sooner than later, so you have time to research them.