Nearly a quarter-million Coloradans received cancellation letters from their health insurance carriers in recent months, in many cases because of requirements built into the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
The figure offers the first glimpse of how many Coloradans could be shopping for health insurance plans for 2014 - a political sticking point after President Barack Obama promised that people could keep their policies.
Colorado insurance regulators, though, said that isn't always the case.
"We couldn't force a company to keep selling a plan," said Vincent Plymell, a Division of Insurance spokesman. "If they make a business decision for whatever reasons ... We can't force them to keep doing it."
As of Nov. 1, 23 companies in Colorado had sent cancellation letters.
Eighteen of those carriers cancelled policies on the individual market, affecting 106,083 people, according to the agency's count. Another 143,116 people lost plans carried by 10 insurance companies on the small group market.
Throughout the nation, at least 3.5 million people have faced similar cancellations, the Associated Press reported Wednesday morning.
Lawmakers allowed insurance companies to "grandfather" in policies sold before March 23, 2010 as long as there weren't substantive changes from year to year. But the law didn't force companies to keep selling plans that were eligible to be grandfathered, Plymell said.
The vast majority of Randy Kilgore's clients weren't grandfathered in. The Colorado Springs insurance broker said that in many cases, the cancelled plans offered lower rates than plans offered on the state's marketplace.
"When they said you can keep your same plan and your same doctor, that is not true," Kilgore said.
About 75 percent of affected Coloradans had either been insured through HMO Colorado, a company affiliated with Anthem, or through Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado, the agency said.
Both companies offered alternative plans to those customers - a requirement if those carriers wanted to stay in the market, the agency said.
Plymell cited two main reasons offered by insurance companies for the discontinued policies.
In some cases, the plans didn't meet all the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, which mandates that beginning Jan. 1, all policies include 10 basic coverages, including substance abuse treatment and mental health care.
In other cases, insurance companies chose not to continue plans into 2014, "as part of normal business operations," the agency said in a statement.
The figures were released the same day that officials overseeing Connect for Health Colorado announced that 3,408 people were enrolled through plans purchased during the marketplace's first month.
Ten times as many people signed up for expanded Medicaid coverage - a contrast that proved particularly stark when held against enrollment goals.
Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expanded to include nearly everyone earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. In 2014, due to certain income modifiers built into the law, that cutoff level effectively became 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
In October, about 20 percent of the more than 160,000 people eligible for those newly expanded Medicaid benefits signed up for coverage.
By comparison, Connect for Health Colorado is about 2.5 percent of way towards its goal of covering 136,000 people by Dec. 31, 2014.
The disparity is likely due to the fact that people buying health insurance through the marketplace have to choose between a variety of plans, rather than just fill out paperwork for made-to-order Medicaid benefits, observers said Wednesday.
"It's not like the shopping experience with Connect for Health," said Rachel Reiter, a Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Finance spokeswoman.
Ben Davis, a marketplace spokesman, highlighted a different number: 52,542 marketplace accounts created in October - a key step for people who want to purchase an insurance plan through the exchange.
He said officials expect enrollment figures to edge up in November and December, especially as a Dec. 15 deadline nears for people to purchase insurance coverage that begins Jan. 1.
"There's no urgent reason for customers to sign up immediately," Davis said.
To learn more
To learn more about purchasing plans through Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s new health insurance marketplace, visit www.connectforhealthco.com or call 855-752-6749.
To learn more about Medicaid, visit www.colorado.gov/PEAK or call 800-221-3943.
For more information about health care changes cross Colorado, visit www.cohealthinfo.com.
BY THE
NUMBERS:
3,408
People covered by marketplace plans through Oct. 31
34,168
People who signed up for Medicaid expansion in October
106,083
Coloradans on individual market whose insurance plans were discontinued
143,116
Coloradans in small group market whose insurance plans were discontinued
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