Responding to Health Care Reform Announcement

We want to take advantage of the President’s transitional policy for renewing our 2013 health plans. He put much of the decision making in the hands of the Departments of Insurance, and they probably received this information at the same time we did.

We’ll have to wait for Illinois Department of Insurance Director Boron to make those decisions about whether he will opt out of the transitional policy, and if not, what the rules for rate setting will be. We have reached out to the Department of Insurance, and we’re hoping to receive guidance very soon since we’re so close to the end of the year.

Again, we need to be clear that this applies only to individual and small business insurance plans that were in effect on October 1, 2013. It does not apply to State of Illinois employees or retirees, and it does not apply to large employer groups.