Government May Soon Change Your Plan, Without Your Input.

Feds Could Auto-Select Insurance Plans for Many

The Obama administration is considering a regulation that would allow the government to automatically switch many people's healthcare insurance exchange plans to a different plan.

Under current law, most exchange enrollees who do not revisit the exchange website are automatically re-enrolled in their current plans when their coverage expires (although a few states don't allow automatic renewal).

The proposed regulation from the Department of Health and Human Services would give exchange enrollees a choice: They could indicate that they would like to re-enroll in their current plan, or they could give the government the ability to move them into a cheaper plan if their current plan's premiums rise.

State exchanges would be given the option to offer these choices in 2016, with the federally run exchanges to follow in 2017.

For those who choose to let the government switch their plans, "the government would be effectively choosing their insurance plan, a far cry from the 'if you like your plan you can keep it' pledge," notes the Cato Institute in a report on the proposal.

Automatic renewal does present several potential problems. Many enrollees will pay more if they renew automatically. The New York Times found that people in the most popular insurance plan would face an average premium rise of 9.5 percent, and a Gallup poll disclosed that 68 percent of respondents said they intend to renew their current plan.

But Cato points out that allowing the government to switch enrollees into cheaper plans also presents problems. People who choose this option could find that their new plan does not offer access to their current physician or provider network, and it may not offer coverage for the same prescription drugs as their previous plan.

Another consideration: At the time of the deadline for people to make their choice, they won't know how much their premiums will go up the next year under their current plan, or how the provider networks of the cheaper plans compare.

"The proposed rules would significantly increase government authority and decision-making power," the Cato report from research associate Charles Hughes concludes. "For many people, the government would actually choose and enroll them in a specific health insurance plan.

"This is the same government that oversaw the disastrous rollout of the exchange website and inflated enrollment numbers. Given its performance so far, we should be wary of giving the government an even bigger role."