Insurance commissioner allows extension of transitional health plans

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Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen today issued a bulletin to all health insurers that issue policies in the state to notify them that Iowa will allow the extension of transitional health insurance policies for individuals and small groups to continue through calendar year 2019. The decision follows an announcement earlier this month from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services permitting these “grandmothered” plans — coverage purchased after the Affordable Care Act was passed but before the implementation of the marketplace in 2014 — to continue. There are approximately 38,000 Iowans in individual plans who have been allowed to keep their coverage each year since 2014; they would face rate increases between 100 and 400 percent if forced to move to the ACA-compliant market, Ommen said. Another 59,000 Iowans in small group transitional plans would also face increases, though they would be smaller. To read this week’s Business Record cover story about how a new state law allowing association health plans may affect individual and small-business coverage, click here