One of the nicer aspects of the ACA was that it allowed “automatic renewal” of your health insurance if you got it from an exchange. This allowed you to avoid the yearly “open enrollment” madness if you so desired. But now there’s a problem:
If you have health insurance on your job, you probably don’t give much thought to each year’s renewal. But make the same assumption in one of the new health law plans, and it could lead to costly surprises.
Insurance exchange customers who opt for convenience by automatically renewing their coverage for 2015 are likely to receive dated and inaccurate financial aid amounts from the government, say industry officials, advocates and other experts.
The problem comes from the fact that since both subsidies and premiums change from year to year, the amount that people might have to pay can go up quite a bit. Those who want a “cheap” plan might find that the choice they made this year isn’t the same one they’d make next year. Assuming that you just want to continue is a potential costly mistake.
The bottom line is that while automatic renewal sounds great in theory, it might not be for many of the people who are getting insurance through the exchanges. Just one more “benefit” the administration may need to backtrack on as November nears.
