Des Moines – Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen today (Thursday) issued a bulletin to all health insurers writing business in Iowa stating that Iowa will allow the extension of transitional health insurance policies for individuals and small groups to continue through calendar year 2019.  This decision follows an announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) permitting these plans to continue. Oman said “I am very concerned about the rate shock for these folks, especially the 38,000 remaining Iowans in the individual transitional pool.  If these Iowans were forced to join the collapsed individual ACA-compliant market, they would see rate increases between 100 – 400 percent.

According to Ommen, “Each year, these Iowans are given the choice during open enrollment to join the ACA market and each year these Iowans have chosen not to do so.  They like their plans and they have kept them.  I appreciate CMS continuing to give states flexibility in this regard as has been done each year since 2014, because without transitional plans as an option for these Iowans, most would likely join the up to 26,000 Iowans that have fled our ACA-compliant individual market this year.”

Transitional plans are health insurance coverage that was purchased after the ACA was passed but prior to the implementation of the Marketplace in 2014.  Transitional plans are closed blocks of business that do not allow new entrants to the risk pool.