Despite the uproar over potential health plan cancellations under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the disruption in coverage wouldn't have been unusual for people in the individual health insurance market, according to a new Health Affairs study.
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, non-grandfathered policies — plans that went into effect or underwent certain changes after the PPACA became law in March 2010 — had to meet new coverage requirements in 2014, and many insurers sent out cancellation notices to people in non-grandfathered plans that weren't compliant with the new criteria. Following criticism and protests, President Barack Obama decided last November to allow consumers to keep non-PPACA compliant plans beyond 2014. Currently, consumers can renew these plans through Oct. 1, 2016, which means some of the old policies will still be in effect in 2017.
However, even before the PPACA's requirements took effect, people in the nongroup market experienced frequent shifts in their sources of coverage, according to the study's author, Benjamin Sommers, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of health policy and economics at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Sommers analyzed the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation data on people with nongroup or individual health insurance coverage from 2008 to 2011, before the PPACA coverage requirements took effect. Here are three of his key findings.
1. Only 42 percent of people with individual coverage at the beginning of the study period keep that coverage after one year.
2. Eighty percent of people who experienced a coverage change had another insurance policy (typically employer-based) within a year.
3. Based on a 2012 estimate that 10.8 million people were covered by individual health plans, an estimated 6.2 million people leave individual health plans annually, suggesting this market is characterized by frequent disruptions in coverage.
More Articles on Health Insurance Coverage:
Poll: Medicaid Expansion, State Exchanges Yield Bigger Uninsured Rate Reductions
Republicans Ask Census Bureau to Keep Old Health Insurance Questions
White House Extends Non-PPACA Compliant Plans Again