September 9, 2013

October 1st, 2013? Are you ready?

OCTOBER 1st!!!!! Why is this date so important? Well October 1st is the day Open Enrollment begins for the new Marketplace plans for health insurance.

What are Marketplace Plans? – Marketplace plans are exactly as they sound. Imagine shopping for anything in an online marketplace. Let’s pretend we’re on Cars.com. First they ask you where you live, then the make and model of the vehicle you need. After this you get to choose the color, the body style, and specifications. Then you’ll find that there are 5 of those cars in your area and they’re all relatively the same price. You begin to weed out the last few by the more trusted seller, customer service, extra perks.

The healthcare marketplace will be very similar, except for the fact that there’s no shipping involved. With the healthcare marketplace, like the cars.com, you’ll get packages that insurance companies have concocted to give you the best benefit. You’ll get to see different options of coverages from different companies and the prices that they offer. The only thing you’ll have to decide is which company. This is where an insurance agency or a broker can help. Agencies like ours deal with multiple companies at one given time. Therefore, we know who has the best customer service, we know which company/companies will keep your rate for the 2014 year the same if you sign up with them before october, we know the ins and outs. Call us if you have any questions 713-429-1790 or e-mail us at GetCovered@rafailinsurance.com

 

If I haven’t bored you enough you can keep reading.

A lot of people have been asking what’s the point of the new marketplace, why was this one of the terms of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare)?

– Since the ACA mandates that everyone should have insurance, the marketplace was intended to provide an easy portal for individuals to tailor plans to their needs. Individuals that are only getting insurance for themselves can now pick the right plan, instead of having to pick out of plans that are usually tailored for families.

– The other reason is that the marketplace is intended to drive competition among carriers and reduce the cost of insurance in the long run. In any market exposure to competitors brings down the cost. If you’ve ever seen two gas stations directly across the street from each other, you’ll notice that when one side’s prices go down, the other will try to bring their price as low or lower than the other gas station. I’ve even seen gas station that put a sign on their price board that said “1cent less than the Chevron across the street”. This drove prices to be lower.

– This will not happen at first though, chances are prices will increase, but will settle in given time should this healthcare reform stay in place.

If you have any other questions please feel free to call or e-mail us at 713-429-1790 or GetCovered@rafailinsurance.com

713-429-1790