As a provision of the federal health-care overhaul, any Iowa insurers that offer child-only health policies will be required to offer an open-enrollment period this summer. The Iowa Insurance Division says the rule appears to be encouraging insurers that stopped offering that specialized coverage to re-enter the market. Most major carriers, among them Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, halted new sales of such policies last fall.

Currently, public health coverage options – Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa (hawk-i) and Medicaid – are the only option in Iowa for children who can’t be covered under a parent’s health plan. Most major health insurers, including Wellpoint Inc., Cigna Corp., Coventry Health Care, Aetna Inc., Humana Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc., have stopped selling child-only coverage.

The administrative rule recently adopted by the Iowa Insurance Division requires any company that sells child-only policies to offer a uniform open-enrollment period from July 1 through Aug. 14, and conspicuously post on its website and in other advertising media the process for the open-enrollment period with its company.

Tom Alger, a spokesman for the division, said enacting a limited enrollment period tends to reduce the likelihood of parents seeking coverage only after a child has become ill. As a result, “there are carriers that have indicated they will be offering policies under these terms,” he said.

Denise Pfeifer, a Wellmark spokeswoman, said her company worked with the Iowa Insurance Division in reviewing the rules, and plans to offer child-only plans when the open enrollment period begins in July.

Federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provisions that became effective in September 2010 guaranteed that all children, even those with serious health problems, can be enrolled in health insurance coverage.

Last November, Des Moines-based Wellmark said it could not afford to be the only major insurer in the state to offer such policies. Wellmark covers approximately 9,000 children in the state under existing policies.

Questions about the open enrollment into a child-only policy can be answered by the Insurance Division’s Consumer Assistance Program, (877) 955-1212.