Health insurers selling policies through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act marketplaces have decided to give consumers 10 extra days to pay their first premiums for plan coverage starting Jan. 1, according to America's Health Insurance Plans.
Originally, people enrolled in health plans set to take effect Jan. 1 were required to pay their first premiums by next Monday. Last week, federal officials pushed back the deadline to Dec. 31. Now, AHIP has announced health insurers have voluntarily extended that deadline even further to Jan. 10. Those who pay their premiums by that date will have coverage retroactive to Jan. 1, according to a news release.
"Our community is taking an important step to give consumers greater peace of mind about their healthcare coverage," AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni said in the release.
The Obama administration has announced a series of delays and last-minute policy changes to the PPACA implementation timeline. Last week, the administration also announced it will extend the Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan by one month to give people with pre-existing conditions more time to purchase health plans through the exchanges. Other recent changes include delaying the 2015 enrollment period, 2014 enrollment deadline extensions and allowing insurers to extend non-PPACA-compliant health plans.
These administrative alterations will probably have a negative effect on health insurers, increasing uncertainty and therefore risk surrounding the PPACA's implementation, according to a report from Moody's Investor's Service.
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