Expanded Short Term Health - 2018 short term health plans
2018 marks an interesting year for short term health plans.
We started with a restricted 90 days per Obama's executive action in 2015.
This number was picked on purpose.
Essentially it will allow people to buy year round short term health plans.
This means that some people will not be in the ACA marketplace.
Big impacts in 2018.
The new plans are due as early as October 2018 depending on the State.
Either way, we have lots of activity with short term plans in 2018.
You can always jump to your 2018 short term quote right here:
Otherwise, on to the review of 2018 short term plans:
Let's get started.
So...what does the market look like in 2018?
Short term has reverted back to its original intent.
Provide catastrophic coverage for a fixed duration of time.
You can find more on that here.
It's very important since it's designed to cover catastrophic needs only.
But at a lower cost if you don't qualify for a tax credit!
A few key points on 2018 short process:
We'll cover the plan options below!
Otherwise, the common reasons we see people get short term in 2018 are:
Very traditional uses of short term.
We won't have the new expanded short term plans till October at the earliest.
Speaking of which, as licensed short term health agents, there's no cost for our assistance.
Call us at 800-320-6269 or email
us with any questions!
The fixed duration is 90 days now.
In some areas, the companies would add what they called a 2 x 3 or 2 periods of 90 days back to back.
They were two separately policies stacked basically.
This stayed within the 90 day restriction that Obama issued in 2015.
Let's take a look at the plans themselves.
What do the plans look like in terms of options and designs?
It partially depends on your area and carriers available.
Here's the lay of the land in terms of plan design.
You have 3 main components to choose from:
Let's look at each for 2018 plans.
This is the amount you pay first before getting help with medical bills.
Once the deductible is met, you then go into the co-insurance.
This is the percentage split for expenses after the deductible but up to the out of pocket max.
This is amount you pay up to (plus deductible) before plan goes 100% up to the term max.
This is the maximum benefit the short term plan will pay up to for covered benefits, in-network.
So what about 2018 plans by company?
IHC has pretty straight forward plan design:
UnitedHealthOne has more options in their plan design:
You can see all the plans and even the brochures from the quote here:
Let's look at the companies available in 2018.
In 2018, we have the following two short term companies:
These are two carriers which don't have significant deficiencies in how their plans are designed.
We've seen other companies with very bad plan designs.
Bad for the members anyway.
That's a deal breaker!
You can get further detail on both companies here:
There's even a big comparison of the 2018 short term companies here.
We don't expect to much change in the carriers available for the year since it usually takes a good 6 months for a carrier to get plans approved by the States.
2019 might a totally new deal with the Trump expansion!
So...what's the best short term plan option in 2018?
Great question.
First, it may be the one that's actually available to you!
We don't have both in every State.
In fact, in most States, we only have one.
In some States, we have none!
The State list is here:
Let's assume we have both.
In that case, check out our full article on picking the best short term health insurance here.
Some quick pointers:
Those are things to focus on!
Here's are review based on 10's of 1000's of short term policies:
Both companies are strong with experience in the short term market.
Plan design can be comparable in terms of what is actually covered.
It's just the deductible, coinsurance, and out of pocket that differs.
Basically, your share of the costs if they happen.
2018 short term health rates can differ depending on age, area, and plan choice.
The only way to check that out is to run the free 2018 rate quote here:
Let's touch base on the doctor and hospital networks available in 2018.
IHC uses the MultiPlan PPO network in 2018.
This a large, nationwide network with close to 1M doctors and 4000 hospitals.
UnitedHealthOne uses their EPO Choice network in 2018.
Another large and nationwide network with 1M doctors and 1000's of hospitals.
Both are comparable and robust.
The difference is the EPO versus PPO.
They work the same in-network.
PPO is better but functionally, they're pretty similar since the PPO pays very little out of network in non-emergency.
There is still a penalty in 2018 for having short term health plans beyond 3 months.
That penalty is slated to go away in 2019.
It's easy to quote 2018 short term health plans.
You can access them here:
The rates shown are per month up to 90 days.
We can cancel month to month.
Enrollment is very easy with short term plans.
You can access the online application through the quote above.
It generally takes 5-10 minutes.
There's a simple health questionnaire as part of the application.
We're happy to help with any questions at 800-320-6269 or by email.
There's ZERO cost for our assistance as short term health agents.
This may be the quiet year before the storm for short term health plans.
2019 could see big changes with the recent Trump expansion:
As for 2018, it's business as usual.
The same elements that have drawn people to short term for decades.
It's takes that long for companies to build and submit the plans.
Not to mention the States have to approve them.
We'll keep everyone up to date on that process for 2019.
Which will be here before you know it!
Again, there is absolutely no cost to you for our services as licensed Short term health agents. Call 800-320-6269 Today!
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