Your Health Idaho adds more plans for 2017
Idaho residents could be seeing more health insurance options for 2017. Your Health Idaho announced new plans for Idahoans.
Your Health Idaho is adding about 15 more plans than last year, so there will now be 225 certified plans available. Your Health Idaho board chairman said the company is all about consumer choice and he feels Idaho has done a great job offering that.
Idaho is one of only about 12 or 13 states that have its own health care exchange system. Most other states only use the federal exchange. Your Health Idaho said the state’s program has been very successful.
“From an Idaho perspective, we may be a small state but we have an exchange that has 95,000 people enrolled, we have a fee that is 1.99% instead of 3.5% so we’ve saved people 13 million dollars, and we are one of the few more financially sustainable exchanges in the country,” said Stephen Weeg, board chairman.
Weeg said one of the keys to Your Health Idaho being so successful is that they offer many choices. While most states only offer one insurance carrier option, Idaho offers five.
“We’ve take this bull by the horns and run with it and I think we’ve been able to do a pretty incredible job for the state of Idaho,” Weeg said.
Along with the number of plans going up in 2017, so will the cost of monthly premiums. But Weeg said the monthly cost is typically offset by the cost of tax credits received when purchasing a plan. Your Health Idaho is the only one who offers that in the state. Ninety percent of customers get tax credits.
Weeg said the goal is to make health insurance affordable for everyone, especially those who might not otherwise have been able to afford health insurance.
“I get personal stories, routinely, of folks who have coverage now and have been able to get the care they’ve needed,” he said. “It makes a real difference in the lives of many people.”
Open enrollment starts Nov. 1, but available plans can be previewed starting Oct. 1. To view the plans go to Your Health Idaho’s website. There’s also information for getting an insurance agent to help determine which plan is the best fit for you.
