Americans thinking about buying health insurance on their own later this year, or maybe switching to a different insurer, are probably out of luck. The policies are going off the market as a little-noticed consequence of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.So if a person loses his job and is no longer covered under his employer's insurance or turns 27 and is no longer covered under his parents' plan or has a disagreement with his present insurer or his insurance agent he is just s.o.l. Suck it up and try to stay healthy until the next open enrolment period in November for a policy that will take effect in 2015. It's one more unintended consequence of Obamacare. While insurance companies are permitted to sell individual policies year round and off the public exchanges it may be more risk than insurers are willing to take. They fear that many would be customers will have pre existing conditions such as a recently broken leg or a nasty STD that won't respond to antibiotics.
With limited exceptions, insurance companies have stopped selling until next year the sorts of individual plans that used to be available year-round. That locks out many of the young and healthy as well as the sick and injured, even those who can afford to buy without government subsidies.
"Now they're stuck," said Bonnie Milani, an independent insurance broker in Los Angeles, who says she warned her customers last year that the change was coming. "It just closes everything down."
It will be interesting to see how many will have insurance by year end. Some who purchased insurance on the exchanges will never pay or allow their policies to lapse after a few months and others who lost coverage will not be able to replace it at any price.
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