It’s the end of October, which means Halloween is fast approaching. Then, once the calendar flips to November, we jump headlong into the holiday season.
It’s a time of celebration, travel, and gift-giving, but, in recent years, something else was added to the mix, and it fills people with dread.
It’s not more visits from in-laws (although, luckily, mine are fabulous!). It’s open enrollment for health insurance.
Since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, millions of Americans have been driven into a health insurance market that operates on one schedule – open enrollment beginning November 1, to establish coverage for the following year.
While the kinks of the sign-up and renewal process are gone, that doesn’t mean that all the problems are solved. The biggest issue, cost, is still there, haunting people as they wait nervously for the enrollment window to open. When it does, they’ll get their first glimpse of how painful next year will be.
I personally use this system, and my current provider sent me a fabulous letter outlining my options for next year.
The jovial note started with: “Good News!”
It went on to let me know that I could keep my current coverage by doing absolutely nothing. To stay enrolled for 2016, all I had to do was sit on my hands and let it happen. The insurance company would automatically carry me over to the new year, with all the benefits and good times associated with my current level of health insurance.
It wasn’t until page five or six that they got to the heart of the matter.
Yes, they said: I would have to pay a tad more to stay in the club.
For my family, the premium will jump from $1,456 per month to $2,008. That’s a 37.9% increase in one year. This isn’t a platinum plan, or even a gold plan; it’s a middle-of-the-road silver plan. It is a PPO instead of an HMO, but that’s because I’d actually like to see my current doctor.
