Health insurers are warning of a growing destabilizing trend involving Obamacare customers who are gaming the system by buying coverage only after they need expensive care and then jumping ship. “Insurers blame the problem on lax rules that allow more than 900,000 people to sign up for coverage outside the standard enrollment season — for instance, when they change jobs or move — without sufficient proof they are eligible.” According to these insurers there are many customers that are also exploiting a three-month “grace period” that allows them to keep getting coverage after they stopped paying their premiums. Maintaining the Affordable Care Act will require better regulation of the health insurance exchanges to counter the current trend of rising premiums and health care costs.
See Paul Demko, Gaming Obamacare, Politico, January 12, 2016.
