Richmond, Va. (PRWEB) May 01, 2014
Remember back when President Obama said that if you liked your health insurance plan, you could keep it?
That applies to people who have grandfathered plans, Tracy Cornatzer, Experient Health Benefits Consultant, wrote in The Health Journal last month.
Experient Health, a Virginia Farm Bureau Company, launched a guest blogging series with The Health Journal this year to help further educate the community on the changes families and businesses are seeing under health care reform.
This latest post highlighted grandfathered plans, what they are are what people should ask their insurance providers about regarding them.
"If you were on a plan before the President signed the health care reform bill into law, you may be able keep your plan indefinitely," Cornatzer wrote. "That means you’re exempt from having to buy a new plan through the Affordable Care Act."
But there are certain provisions that prevent buyers from getting some of the rights and protections that other plans offer.
"First of all, in order to be considered grandfathered, the plan has to have been in existence on or before March 23, 2010, and it can’t have been changed significantly," Cornatzer wrote. "In Virginia, none of the group plans offered through major insurance companies are grandfathered. So if you get your health insurance through an employer, this topic does not apply to you. But if it’s an individual plan—the kind you buy yourself—it may qualify as grandfathered. In Virginia, it’s estimated than less than 5 percent of people fall into this category."
Health care reform requires that there be certain essential health benefits offered to consumers. On a grandfathered plan, some of the rules of health care reform don’t apply. The part of the law that requires routine preventative care be covered at 100 percent? That doesn’t apply.
To read more about grandfathered health insurance plans, visit The Health Journal health care reform Blog by Experient Health. Learn more about Experient Health and health care reform here.