Five Wisconsin health insurers have announced low out-of-pocket plans. That’s according to an announcement at a Capitol press conference attended by Democratic lawmakers, including state Senator Jon Erpenbach.
“In Wisconsin, as we know, we have a governor who is more interested in making sure the Affordable Care Act won’t work than he is in providing people with affordable health care options,” Erpenbach said.
Robert Kraig with Citizen Action of Wisconsin explained that the Center for Medicare Services issued new regulations for creation of “standardized plans” in February, but the Walker administration took no action to urge Wisconsin insurers to develop such plans. Kraig said 5 companies developed the plans after lobbying efforts by Citizen Action and state legislators.
“The state of Wisconsin did not require this, so it was entirely up to the individual insurance companies, whether they would offer these low out-of-pocket plans,” Kraig said.
The companies are:
Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative
Molina Healthcare
Network Health
Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin
ARISE/WPS
The Low out-of-pocket plans have no deductables for a number of high value services, but do have consumer cost sharing in the form of co-pays. The plans will be available next year. “When people start enrolling on Healthcare.gov in November 2017, these plans will rise to the top of the screen,” Kraig said.
