State Sen. Tommy Norment (R-3rd District)
Health insurance companies would be allowed to renew policies not compliant with Obamacare through 2016 if Gov. Terry McAuliffe signs a bill passed earlier this week.
State Sen. Tommy Norment (R-3rd District), who represents part of the Historic Triangle, introduced the legislation that aims to prevent the cancellation of policies that do not adhere to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
The bill, which allows the renewals as long as federal authorities continue to not enforce Obamacare’s requirements for what existing policies should cover, passed both houses of the General Assembly on unanimous votes.
There are differing opinions to the number of people the bill could affect, rendering it unclear how many people will be able to renew their policies, according to Stacy Kern-Scheerer, a professor who teaches health law at the College of William & Mary. Republican Speaker of the House of Delegates William Howell put the number at up to 250,000 in a Tuesday update of the General Assembly’s current session.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for enforcing Obamacare, issued a letter in March announcing states could pass legislation to allow insurance companies to renew non-compliant plans until Oct. 1, 2016.
Norment’s bill would allow the companies to offer non-compliant plans only to customers currently enrolled who are seeking to renew their policies; however, it does not force the companies to do so.
Norment said in a Tuesday media advisory he has been “absolutely inundated” with phone calls and emails by callers who received cancellation notices.
“I felt compelled to try to do something to address this,” Norment said in the advisory. “The Virginia General Assembly cannot overturn the [Affordable Care Act]. But, we can do everything possible to try to mitigate its negative effects on the people of Virginia. Senate Republicans will.”
The bill could spell relief for those who have yet to take action on their health insurance plans, but for those who have already received cancellation notices, it may already be too late.
“If you’ve already received your cancellation notice, it’s not likely to help you unless your company decides to go back and reinstate your plan,” Kern-Scheerer said. “That’s a very difficult thing for an insurance company to do.”
Several factors can render a policy out of compliance, such as not including maternity care or behavioral health treatments, as well as not imposing caps for out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs.
Obamacare originally required all plans to be in compliance with the law at the start of this year. In November 2013, HHS released a letter that allowed noncompliant plans to continue through 2014. In March, a second letter was released, which allows for the renewals to occur up to Oct. 1, 2016.
The passage of the bill by the General Assembly comes less than a week before the federal healthcare exchange opens. On Saturday, shoppers will be able to visit healthcare.gov and purchase healthcare plans for 2015 on the open marketplace.
Though this piece of legislation passed on a unanimous vote, Obamacare has divided Republicans and Democrats in Richmond. The state government nearly shut down earlier this year after the two sides were deadlocked on including Medicaid expansion in the state’s budget. Medicaid expansion would have helped subsidize the insurance costs of people near the federal poverty level primarily with federal funds, though after three years the state would be responsible for 10 percent of the cost.