Obama’s patch for ACA much like Georgia’s | Online Athens

President Obama’s recent decision to allow people to renew their canceled insurance policies for a year appears to have left as many questions as answers among health care analysts.

Facing a storm of criticism about canceled policies, Obama announced an administrative change to let insurers continue offering individual plans for another year, even if they don’t meet the Affordable Care Act’s minimum benefits.

In Georgia, to a large extent, such a remedy is already available. Many health insurers in Georgia are allowing individuals to retain their policies through late 2014.

Georgia Health News reported this month that most Georgia insurers are letting consumers have an option to renew their plan before Jan. 1 and avoid the ACA’s benefits requirements.

Obama’s announcement came a day after federal officials released enrollment figures for the health insurance exchanges. In Georgia, 1,390 have signed up for a health plan through the exchange, the Department of Health and Human Services said.

But Glenn Allen, a spokesman for state Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens, said that based on Georgia insurers’ data, the number of applicants who have given sufficient information to enroll through healthcare.gov is actually 536.

via Obama’s patch for ACA much like Georgia’s | Online Athens.