A special enrollment period for older Coloradans to sign up for certain Medicare supplement insurance ends June 30. The Colorado Division of Insurance opened up the six-month period after federal changes kept newly eligible people from purchasing some of the supplement policies, which are often sold by private companies to help with costs for copays, deductibles and other things that aren’t covered by original Medicare. People that buy supplemental policies, called Medigap, can do so without having their health or risk evaluated in order to get a plan, said Vincent Plymell, assistant commissioner for the agency.
Recent health insurance market consolidation linked to Obamacare regulations has raised premiums for employers and individuals. Consolidation happens when either producers in a market leave or two or more producers merge into one company. Either way, it means a larger market share for the companies that remain. In recent years, consolidation due to insurers exiting a market has become more common, especially in the Obamacare exchanges. According to data from the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, 345 insurers offered coverage on the exchanges in 2013. By 2019, that had fallen to 202.
Each year, an obscure federal rule forces thousands of seniors to pay penalties for the rest of their lives simply because they made an honest mistake while signing up for Medicare. That number will rise unless Congress modernizes the program’s enrollment process, which is tethered to outdated ideas about seniors and retirement. Seniors are twice as likely to be working today as in 1985. So many more of them have to decide whether to sign up for Medicare when they become eligible at age 65 or keep their job-based health plan. Making the wrong decision can be costly.
At a time when higher grocery bills and surging gas prices are taking big, toothy bites out of your paycheck, it can feel like everything suddenly costs more in America. But at least one item — a critically important one at that — has seen its cost fall for the third year in a row. A new report by the Urban Institute has found that the cost of health insurance plans sold on Obamacare marketplaces has shrunk each year since premiums rose dramatically in 2017 and 2018.
It has been one week since open enrollment began for Medicaid expansion in Oklahoma. Officials say there are about 200,000 Oklahomans that qualify for Medicaid expansion, and thousands have already signed up for healthcare benefits. In fact, almost 100,000 Oklahomans have already signed up for Medicaid.
Ellen Phillips hasn’t eaten much solid food over the past year and a half. She has lost all of her upper teeth — badly infected, they had to be extracted in 2019. Her tongue is constantly swollen. “I do well with Cheerios, applesauce and chocolate pudding, but I literally choke if I try to eat solid food, and that’s not how I should be eating,” said Ms. Phillips, 76, who is diabetic.