A PSA: What does it mean for an insurance to be ACA compliant?

!!!!! AKA PLEASE READ BEFORE CONSIDERING BUYING "PRIVATE INSURANCE" !!!!!!

Hello all! I wanted to make a quick post to you all talking about the importance of knowing your options with health insurance. There has been a sudden increase in the comments suggesting redditors to look into "the private marketplace" to find coverage.

What is the private marketplace? Simply put, these are "plans" or policies that can only be sold to you by a broker or agent. This subreddit has a very strict "no solicitation" rule that is absolutely enforced. We do NOT want any of our fellow redditors to be taken advantage of in any way, which is why this post is being made. Further, it gives an opportunity to discuss what makes these private marketplace policies potentially problematic.

Most of these policies are not ACA compliant. The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) has three major goals: 1. Allow Americans access to affordable health insurance by providing tax credits to those who qualify. 2. Expand Medicaid to cover more individuals. Medicaid has rules for every state, but to this day only 10 states have not expanded their Medicaid programs. 3. Try to lower health care costs in general.

Thanks to the ACA, there are many things that most Americans have the right to now that wasn't available before. For example, free preventative care. Getting an annual physical should not be a matter of health versus money. Additionally, pre-existing conditions are no longer a factor in ACA health plans. The most important benefit to many of us is the ability to appeal the insurances decisions as a patient. YOU are the most important advocate for yourself, and the right to appeal makes it so. One obvious benefit that the ACA has created is being able to find coverage using healthcare.gov.

These private marketplace policies should be taken in caution, as many are not ACA compliant. That being said, do they have some benefits? I can argue yes for some of them. I even have a cancer insurance policy through my employer's trusted broker with Aflac. But if I were to have cancer, my health insurance will be the first to protect my medical stability, not the supplemental cancer policy. When looking into health insurance, be aware that anything not from the open marketplace or state could be non-ACA compliant. Nearly all employers plans are ACA compliant as well.

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled programing. Please ask questions! We want to help 🙂

submitted by /u/HearingAidThrowaways
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