Journalists reporting on open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) should warn consumers that during the ACA’s special enrollment period (from Feb. 15 through Sept. 15, 2021) that online shoppers were more likely to be referred to alternative health insurance plans that do not comply with the ACA’s requirements than to ACA-compliant plans, according to research from the Georgetown University Center for Health Insurance Reforms. The non-compliant offerings included fixed-indemnity, short-term, health care sharing ministry and other plans that were impossible to categorize based on the information the insurers provided, the report noted. Typically, the alternative plans were more expensive than coverage through the ACA marketplaces and required consumers to pay more for deductibles and coinsurance. Sales representatives for the non-compliant plans gave misleading information about alternative plans and made false statements about the cost and features of ACA-compliant plans, the report said.
