As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) goes into effect, consumers are going to have more health insurance choices than ever. With open enrollment in the health insurance exchanges just six months away, there’s still plenty of confusion over how the exchanges will operate and what they’ll have to offer. One point of confusion seems to be private vs. public exchanges. Here’s a basic primer that should help.

What are Public Exchanges?

Under the new law,…

With healthcare reform firing on all cylinders in January 2014, many Michigan employers still have a lot of decisions to make in 2013. Below are some of the key questions and evolving answers for health care issues you may be grappling with:

Q: How will existing health plans be affected by PPACA?

A: If your plan was in place on March 23, 2010 when PPACA was enacted, you have a “grandfathered” plan that will be subject to some of the new regulations but exempt from…

According to the Congressional Budget Office, an estimated four million people in the U.S. have preexisting conditions that have prevented them from obtaining health insurance. That was the impetus behind the Pre-Existing Condition Plan (PCIP), created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

The program was created to provide temporary health insurance coverage – including primary and specialty care, hospital care, and prescription drugs – to those who have…

It seems everywhere I turn in the health insurance scene, I’m hearing about private exchanges and defined contribution as some magic elixir to what ills the health insurance marketplace.  Here’s the trouble, neither do anything about absolute costs. 

If you’re new to the scene or a little confused, let me provide some insight.

Insurance exchanges (now referred to as marketplaces) as proposed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are supposed to act as Expedia or Travelocity like…