Clues for navigating the alphabet soup of health insurance ::posted Sun, 17 Aug 2014 21:45:02 +0000:: ift.tt/1v5EN5S rss@dailykos (Joan McCarter) There are some very good reasons for people who have their health insurance through Obamacare to not just auto-enroll in their same plans again. The biggest reason is potential premium sticker shock as the marketplace brings on new insurance companies and rates—and the subsidies 85 percent of Obamacare customers receive—are adjusted. But looking at all the available options is smart for everyone as open enrollment season opens, because the health insurance world is changing pretty regularly and rapidly these days. Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation helped walk listeners of Californias KPCC radio through all the baffling terminology, and whats hidden behind those acronyms and how to figure it all out. The first thing, he says, is to not give in to your first instinct to ignore it all and just let stay in your current plan. There are lots of reasons to shop around, particularly this year, he says. […] Some plans are increasing premiums, some plans are decreasing premiums, he says. So you could find yourself saving a lot of money if you switch plans. But its a lot easier to want to wade into shopping for health insurance—even among your employer-sponsored plans—if you know what in the hell theyre talking about with their PPOs, EPOs and HMOs. Those are the three main types of policies youll probably be seeing. Within those categories, youll also see POSs and HDHPs. To wade through what all of this means, head below the fold. [Forwarded by the MyLeftBlogosphere news engine. Link to original post below:]
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 04:48:42 +0000