NPR Interviews Joel Ario on Policy Extensions for Insured Individuals
"Democrats Join Calls to Rectify Canceled Health Insurance"
NPR
November 13, 2013 - NPR interviewed Manatt's Joel Ario, a managing director with Manatt Health Solutions, on what's being done to help those people in the individual insurance market whose plans are now being cancelled.
NPR reports that people getting insurance cancellation notices are getting louder and coming from all sides. President Obama has hinted that he wants to do something about the cancellation problem, but so far, the administration hasn't proposed anything specific for those people.
Some industry insiders say it's too late to undo those cancelled policies, but Ario told NPR that just this week in California, two insurers agreed to continue to offer some existing plans, at least temporarily. But that's a bit of a different situation, he said, because they settled with the state's insurance commissioner.
"Their earlier cancellations were not proper under California law," said Ario, "and they are extending their policies - in one case [by] another couple months and in another case [by] three months. So clearly it can be done by the carriers to extend current coverages."
Read the article here.