Posted: 1/20/2016 1:28:58 AM EDT
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All, my situation has changed and I'm now in the market for an individual health care insurance plan to enroll in.
I am in the SE (Milwaukee County). I have traditionally had PPO, higher monthly premium, lower deductible/max out-of-pocket. To give some info my last policy premium when I was a resident outside of WI was $475/month. I travel for work a fair amount and any plan that covers as much as possible for emergency care that is out-of-network is great, This is a shot in the dark but if anyone one here has some recommendations for plans to look at or even a local agent, I'm all ears. TIA 
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Quite a few agents have stopped dealing with individual health insurance since the ACA kicked in, and depending on where you live, your options may be very slim. There aren't many companies left in WI that offer ACA compliant plans (4 or 5, to my knowledge), and it really depends on the county, as stupid as that sounds. Plus, in nearly every instance, companies have slimmed down their networks, in an attempt to help control costs. This means that you might be forced into a particular company's plan to find a doctor you like, or vice versa.
FWIW, I think every plan out there right now treats emergency care as "in-network", but you might be subjected to a relatively large ER copay (say $500 or more) for the visit. The premiums you'll pay are all over the board, which is based primarily on your age, sex, tobacco use, other people to be insured, and your ability to pay (i.e. estimated 2016 gross income). I usually tend to stick to the well-known companies, as they are much less likely to shut their doors, but they'll probably charge more in premium. Quite a few of the co-ops that were started since 2012 have been running in the red since day 1. Good luck! |
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Quoted:
Quite a few agents have stopped dealing with individual health insurance since the ACA kicked in, and depending on where you live, your options may be very slim. There aren't many companies left in WI that offer ACA compliant plans (4 or 5, to my knowledge), and it really depends on the county, as stupid as that sounds. Plus, in nearly every instance, companies have slimmed down their networks, in an attempt to help control costs. This means that you might be forced into a particular company's plan to find a doctor you like, or vice versa. FWIW, I think every plan out there right now treats emergency care as "in-network", but you might be subjected to a relatively large ER copay (say $500 or more) for the visit. The premiums you'll pay are all over the board, which is based primarily on your age, sex, tobacco use, other people to be insured, and your ability to pay (i.e. estimated 2016 gross income). I usually tend to stick to the well-known companies, as they are much less likely to shut their doors, but they'll probably charge more in premium. Quite a few of the co-ops that were started since 2012 have been running in the red since day 1. Good luck! Jimy, Thank you for the response, which confirms what I'd somewhat suspected. I'm looking at UnitedHealthcare and Humana, if you or anyone else has any insight between the two, let me know. 
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I think Anthem is the only remaining large company that you're missing. Usually, I don't necessarily equate large companies with quality (and still don't), but it all goes back to their ability to pay claims. In the immediate short-term, you'll probably be OK with anyone, but too many companies have gone belly-up since 2012 (and not all of them small).
Assurant used to do plenty of individual plans, but they closed their health insurance business back at the beginning of 2015, and United seems to be heading down the same path. You might want to be wary with United, but the same can be said with any of these companies. United has cut commissions on ACA-eligible plans to nearly nothing, which can be seen as nothing but a bad omen. While it may seem like a good thing, pretty much any time an insurance company cuts commissions, it indicates a last-ditch effort to plug the holes in a sinking ship. Plus, United has already indicated they may have to pull out of ACA plans in 2017, which is probably the worst indicator of all. For some good details on the outlook, clicky clicky. |