Anyone who is currently having major health issues and thinking of switching from their current individual health insurance plan to an Affordable Care Act insurance plan better do their homework first. I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (a blood cancer) in June and will be undergoing a stem cell transplant in late December and going into early January. I was talking with the financial/insurance person with the group of doctors where I will be getting my stem cell transplant and was told that as of this week they would NOT be accepting any of the Affordable Care Act health insurance plans (Cigna, BCBS/TX and Aetna in the Dallas area) for a stem cell transplant. I was told that if I switched to one of those plans I would have to find someone else to do the transplant...or pay for it myself. So for now I've decided to stick with the Cigna health insurance plan that I currently have. I could probably find someone else to do the transplant but the group and hospital I'm looking at to do it is one of the best in the Dallas area and saving a few $grand is probably not my highest priority at this point. Luckily Cigna sent me a letter a month ago saying that my plan would remain the same in 2014 because the effective date of the plan would be 12/31/2013 rather than 01/01/2014...which means that they didn't have to meet all of the Affordable Care Act requirments. The only change was that my premium went up from $406/mo to $465/mo. I would have liked to have switched to an Affordable Care Act gold plan because my deductible would have been $2000-3000 less and my premium would have been about $80/month less....about a $3000-4000 savings over my current plan. But if I switched I'd be limiting myself to where I could get my health services. So if you're having any major health related services done next year and have a choice as to whether you keep your current plan or switching, you might want to do some research to find out who will be accepting those new Affordable Care Act plans. I would hope that by a year from now more health groups would be accepting the Affordable Health Care plans for more health services after they know more details. Hopefully I can switch to an Affordable Care Act plan a year from now and be able to use the same doctors and hospitals I can use today.
So they are saying that they will no longer accept plans that are ACA compliant? That seems almost impossible in the years ahead since ALL plans are going to be such once the employer mandate hits.