The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has received its share of bad publicity recently with the complications of the federal exchange website for people who need to sign up. The original roll out in October was not as successful as planned and continues to be a work in progress as the initial deadline of December 31 creeps ever closer. In lieu of these problems, President Obama addressed the nation in November revealing that people may be able to maintain their current plans into 2014. This new option applies to the individual marketplace as consumers are scrambling to find new plans before the ACA cancels their non-compliant policies.
It is important to note that some grandfathered plans in the individual marketplace are already able to maintain their coverage. A grandfathered plan is one that was in existence on or before March 23, 2010 and hasn’t changed substantially to reduce benefits or increase costs. These grandfathered plans are exempted from many changes required by the ACA.
This option to maintain through 2014, is now being extended to insurers in the individual marketplace. In a Forbes article last month, President Obama noted “the bottom line is that insurers can extend current plans that would otherwise be canceled into 2014.” To determine if this applies to you, consumers in the individual marketplace should consult with their insurer to see if they have the option of maintaining a current plan through 2014 or if they do in fact need to choose a new plan for January 1.