2014 Impact of Health Insurance in Washington State
As we all know the main part of the “Affordable Care Act” is going into effect on January 1st, 2014. What we did not know before is specifically how much it will impact Individual Health Insurance policies in Washington State.
For those of you that have Health Insurance through your work group policy you will see minimal impact, most of the provisions that impacted your policies were put in force in 2011. You can stop reading now and I ask that you forward this article onto your friends that work for themselves or have Individual Insurance. Seriously, please forward this on Facebook and Email the link to others, as it’s a straight forward overview explaining what’s going on in this state.
Those of us that have Individual Health Insurance this is for you!
It’s estimated that prices for Individual Policies in Washington State will increase by 34% to 80% (the one exception is for people that already have a Maternity & Prescription Plan, you will pay about the same next year). For myself as a 32 year old Male that has a decent income, my premium will be increasing from $168/mo to $250/mo or a 48.8% increase.
Calculate your 2014 Premium (it shows the total cost and potential subsidies)
Detailed Examples for Washington State (click on the article below)
The reason prices will be increasing for Individual plans is that they are generally Catastrophic, thus having minimal coverage. In 2014 everyone will be upgraded to a Cadillac plan. You get MORE coverage so your will pay MORE money…pretty simple concept.
EVERY plan will include Prescription Drug and Maternity coverage (even for men that will NEVER use it, literally). This means that everyone will have plans that cover more so when you change from plan to plan its harder to “game the system”, particularly when a woman gets pregnant or you need an extremely expensive Rx.
NOW, there are plans without Prescription Drug and Maternity coverage. In 2013 people simply upgrade their plan “right before” needing coverage for pregnancy or an expensive Prescription Drug, ta da instantly covered.
The NEW Washington State Health Exchanges open on October 1st, so give me a call or email and can walk you through the system. It’s the same exact cost if you get health insurance yourself or work with an agent…so it’s FREE to work with me (the carriers pay me out of their profits).
NOTE: There are subsidies for lower and mid-income families, so you may get better coverage and end up paying less.
Gary Franke, MBA
Independent Broker
Achieve Alpha Insurance
12507 Bel-Red Rd
Bellevue, WA 98005
(425) 802-2783
gary@achieve-alpha.com
www.achieve-alpha.com