Our new H.H.S. director Dr. Tom Price and our new C.M.S. director Seema Veerma are wasting no time in improving how both the Open and Special enrollment periods work under the PPACA (Obamacare). There will be no more “gaming of the system”. Below are the changes that will both lower premiums and restore desperately needed competition.

1.) The Open Enrollment period will be shortened from 90 days to 45 days. 2018 open enrollment begins on 11/1/2017 and will end on on 12/15/2017 (not January 31, 2018 as has been the rule). This will lead to less adverse selection and lower premiums.

2.) If you are eligible for “Special Enrollment” you now must prove you are before the health insurance policy will be issued. This will also lead to less adverse selection and lower premiums.

3.) If you try to dump a health insurance policy in the middle of the year by stopping payment and then attempt to reapply with the same insurer later in the year, that insurer can now require you to pay up to 3 months of back premiums that you would have owed had you kept your policy in place like you should have all year. This too will lead to less adverse selection and lower premiums.

4.) Health Insurers will finally be allowed some actuarial flexibility when designing new health insurance plans. This will lead to more health plan options with lower premiums. Most importantly it will provide an impetus for some of the 40 health insurers who left the marketplace since 2014 to re-enter and thereby restore some of the desperately needed competition that Obamacare destroyed.

With the new found endorsements of the American Health Care Act – AHCA – by the House Freedom Caucus and Club For Growth we may be getting much more relief from Obamacare very soon. Until then, these two brilliant appointees by President Trump are wasting no time ensuring that Americans get as much relief as possible before the 2018 Obamacare open enrollment period begins. For the 19 million Americans who purchase their own individual health insurance these reliefs can not come soon enough.

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