I see, er, insure, Dead People

Actually, this is a great idea:

"An audit by the State Comptroller’s Office has revealed that hundreds of dead people were enrolled in New York’s health exchange, with nearly two dozen of them enrolling after death."

Point 1: Dead people Metabolically-challenged citizens (MCCs) have historically filed the fewest claims of any demographic.

Point 2: Is it their fault that they (presumably) died while waiting for the 404Care.gov site to let them proceed?

Point 3: MCCs are also the least likely to complain about bare-bones (sorry!) policies and skinny networks.

All-in-all, win-win.

Gaba, Gaba Do!

Meanwhile, on Twitter: One of the folks I follow is Charles Gaba, with whom I rarely agree, but who does offer rational, generally well-researched conversation. He's also a blogger, and has published a really extensive and well-done post with Six Seven pieces of ACA/Open Enrollment advice.

I do have a major problem with #6:

"The tax penalty for *not* being covered is $695 or 2.5% of your taxable income this year."

It's not that the information is inaccurate - it's not. My problem with it is that the fine penalty tax is both a good deal, and toothless.

We had quite the little conversation (at 140 characters per), but it really boiled down to this: the minimum fine for 2016 is $695 per person, which translates to $58 per month. If you're not getting a subsidy, there's no plan at any age that's going to be that low. Then add in the $6,000+ out-of-pocket for the Bronze plan (cheapest metallic level), and the fine begins to look like a real bargain.

Are there downsides to this?

Of course: there's always the risk that you'll need care. But that's what EMTALA is for, no? Now, I'm not (necessarily) advocating this strategy for folks in general, but I do think it's important to recognize its plausibility for healthy folks who make too much to be subsidy-eligible.

Related: Fellow insurance pro and blogger Louise Norris has a new (free!) ebook out, and it's quite timely: The Insider's Guide to Obamacare's Open Enrollment. Available now (for free!) at Amazon.

Training Day - Epilogue

So, the other day I finished up my 2016 Federal Marketplace (Exchange) training. As I noted previously, this is mostly a re-hash of previous years, but there was one significant change that I took note of, and which I think is a (very) good thing:

 

[click to embiggen]

"1. Online. The individual can log in ... then report a life change"

Previously, all status changes (moves, marriages, divorces, income adjustment, etc) had to be reported to the Marketplace by telephone. On the one hand, it's a toll-free number, but the problem I've always had with that was the lack of a "paper" trail (pixels would be fine, as well). Well, now that objection is resolved, and I feel better about the process going forward.

Beating the horse

FoIB Holly R tips us to this (unsurprising) news vicious lie:

"ObamaCare Rates Revealed; Lowest-Cost Plans Jump 13%"

To which I can only reply:

La plus ca change, HHS-style

So, this past summer we noted that during last year's Open Enrollment season, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) had successfully registered almost a dozen fake Exchange accounts, complete with subsidies and insurance policy purchases.

We're happy to report that all of these problems have now been fixed, and...

Wait, what?

/sigh

"[F]ederal watchdog office did set up 10 phony insurance coverage accounts with no pushback from those overseeing the applications."

They set up the "sting" to see if last year's experiences had borne fruit, in the form of "plugging up" the obvious HIX holes. And of course, the rocket surgeons running it are still failing.

[Hat Tip: Co-Blogger Patrick]