4. You need to enroll in the ‘right’ state
Each state will have a health-insurance marketplace, and people must sign up for insurance in the state of their primary residence. Plans will include coverage for any emergencies that happen when you’re traveling out-of-state.
Snowbirds who split their time between states will likely have multistate plans to choose from on the marketplaces. Details for these plans will become available later this month, when the Office of Personnel Management announces the contracts, according to a spokesperson. Some may be regional plans that cover a large metropolitan area that crosses state boundaries. But it’s possible that a given multistate plan may not meet the needs of someone who spends, say, half the year in New York and the other half in Florida.
Currently, some snowbirds are served by what’s known as a “wraparound network,” whereby a claims-management company contracts with the primary insurer to lease a provider network that the insurer’s members can access when they travel outside the primary network area, said Terri Welter, principal at ECG Management Consultants, a Seattle-based consulting firm to the health-care industry. While it’s not clear yet, it’s possible this type of system may continue with some plans on the exchanges, she said.