We-Have-To-Pass-It-To-Find-Out-What’s-In-It Fact of the Day
Merrill Matthews via David Henderson draws our attention to a little reported fact: You can’t buy 12 month health insurance for a fixed premium anymore.
Traditionally in the individual market, where people buy their own (i.e., non-group) health coverage, applicants sign a contract and the insurance company guarantees that premium for a year. I’m told that about 12 percent of individual applicants would write a check for the year’s premium, rather than being billed monthly.
No more. Health insurers started sending out notices in January informing insurance brokers and agents that the companies will no longer guarantee that premium rate. From now on it’s month to month.
And that’s not because they expect next month’s premium to go down.
At some point you’ll need to turn these We-Have-to-Pass-It-To-See-What’s-in-It Fact of the days into a book…
Oh wait, it already has been. Legislators didn’t read it 🙁
This reminds me of looking for apartments. Most leasing agents will not guarantee the price they tell you will be valid tomorrow. In one property I lived at for several years, prices fluctuated twice-a-day depending on “demand”.
This is quite troublesome. Imagine the stressors associated with not knowing what your insurance premium will cost the following month. Not knowing whether the increase will permit you to afford insurance or not — pretty scary how things are unfolding.
Prices will go up and now it looks like fixed premiums are a thing of the past. What’s up next?
If they did a month-to-month checks through email, this would make my life so much easier.
I suppose the upside to this is that prices will be less sticky – not that prices have ever before been sticky up mind you.