<p>
Nothing on the page says that. It says that people who had grandfathered plans are allowed to keep their plans, and people with non-grandfathered plans are having their plans terminated.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.blueshieldca.com/bsca/about-blue-shield/health-reform/producers/grandfathered-plans/home.sp[/url]”>https://www.blueshieldca.com/bsca/about-blue-shield/health-reform/producers/grandfathered-plans/home.sp</a></p>
<p>GP, you could have kept your plan if you started the plan before Mar 23, 2010 and you kept the plan. But you switched.</p>
<p>“If an individual or group purchased a plan on or before March 23, 2010, the plan may now be considered “grandfathered” and will be exempt from some of health reform’s mandates.
However, some mandates apply to all plans, including grandfathered plans. If changes not mandated by law are made to a policy, the plan could lose its grandfathered status and become subject to all health reform mandates.
Grandfathered status is available on most Blue Shield individual and family plans. Grandfathered status is an option for all of our self-funded clients as well as for current large groups with highly-customized plans.”</p>
<p>“The following Blue Shield plans may be grandfathered:
Most Blue Shield Individual and Family Plans, (except EssentialSM plans1 and Access + HMO®), as long as the plan was in effect on or before March 23, 2010 and meets all grandfathering qualifications.”</p>
<p>GP…</p>
<p>It is just as well you lost the grandfathered plan. It looks like it sucked. </p>
<p>Had annual caps and pre existing conditions were allowed, right?
If so, that is not insurance. </p>
<p>I am looking at the bottom of what I linked.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s not a new development – insurers typically send out cancellation notices when payments are late, with a specific date for payment to continue coverage (plus late charges)-- and the notice of cancellation specifies that if the premium isn’t paid by date X the policy is then cancelled retroactively.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is a shocker? Why?</p>
<p>This strikes me as a minor problem that can easily be fixed, and that is not going to happen very often. Moreover, the patient who gets treated in months 2 and 3, and whose hasn’t paid his insurance, is still liable for the bills for the medical treatment he receives. If the insurer doesn’t pay, the collection agents can go after the patient. Yeah, there will be some deadbeats who sign up for insurance, don’t pay their premiums, and then trot into a doctors office in February to get treated. This is a problem, and there are probably ways around it, but it’s not a shocking, fatal flaw.</p>
<p>If I were a doctor, I’d worry more about people who don’t pay their co-insurance, because there are potentially a lot more of them.</p>
<p>“Note: Grandfathered plans are those in effect on or before March 23, 2010 which your clients are still on. This also includes any of your clients who may have downgraded to a plan and still retained grandfathered status.”</p>
<p>dstark and calmom, what do you think Anthem means by including any clients who may have downgraded to a plan and still retained grandfather status? Isn’t this indicating that if you downgraded your plan after March 23 because of a premium increase, you will not lose your grandfather status?</p>
<p>dstark, my grandfathered plan had no annual or lifetime caps. It was a pretty good plan.</p>
<p>You had a Blue Shield account, right?</p>
<p>I was paying 1000 a month in 2010 and I had caps. (Ok. It was an Anthem plan but still… ).
Are you really sure there were no caps?</p>
<p>Looks like from the bottom of the page of the link there were caps on plans.</p>
<p>It implies to me that if you had an Anthem plan prior to that date and later downgraded, but stayed a client, that you are grandfathered. At least that is how it reads. Can you call and ask, or are they clueless?</p>
<p>dstark, there were no caps. All plans had to eliminate annual lifetime caps (even grandfathered plans) and my plan never had an annual cap. What do you think about the language indicating you will not lose your grandfather status if your plan was downgraded?</p>
<p>busdriver11, that’s how I read it. Calmom indicated in a prior post that it would be illegal to retain your grandfather status if you changed plans after March 23, 2010. Now I am wondering if this is correct.</p>
<p>budsriver11, the problem is that my plan is with Blue Shield not Anthem. Blue Shield is saying, however, they cannot restore my grandfather status without violating the ACA law. I am beginning to think this is not correct. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>
We’ve been through this before, GP – if someone has joined a GROUP-issued plan via their employer which is grandfathered, then they benefit from the grandfathered status of the GROUP plan. </p>
<p>You CHANGED to a DIFFERENT plan.</p>
<p>Blue Shield and Anthem are subject to the SAME LAWS.</p>
<p>If you have a Blue Shield plan, you do not have a grandfathered plan.</p>
<p>“You CHANGED to a DIFFERENT plan.”</p>
<p>Calmom, the link provided by dstark seems to be referring to individual plans not group plans.</p>
<p>I don’t know, Goldenpooch, I thought maybe you’d be covered if you were with the same company and just got a lesser plan. I would think changing companies would make it not apply. Just guessing from the paragraph you quoted.</p>
<p>Then again, I always like to keep asking until I get the answer I want.</p>
<p>GP, here’s a link to Anthem’s agent manual - <a href=“http://docs.anthem.com/wellpoint/docs/viewDocument?mcItemNbr=25056CABENABC[/url]”>http://docs.anthem.com/wellpoint/docs/viewDocument?mcItemNbr=25056CABENABC</a> </p>
<p>The provisions about Grandfathering are at p. 21.</p>
<p>I am just thinking if Anthem is allowed to retain grandfather status for plan changes after March 23, 2010 in the individual market, then Blue Shield must be incorrect to say that they are precluded from restoring my grandfather status because I changed plans after March 23. Busdriver11, I did not change companies just plans.</p>
<p>Calmom, seems to think the language in the link provided by dstark is referring to the group market but I don’t see any references to group plans, just individual plans.</p>
<p>GP, the paragraphs that you are reading about grandfathered plans do not use the word “individual”. Your interpretation is unwarranted. </p>
<p>You knew you were giving up grandfathered status in 2012 when you opted to switch plans. You’ve posted several times that you knew that. Your choice, your consequences.</p>
<p>Calmom, you may be right but I don’t want to go gently into that good night. I thought President Obama was talking to me today. It was as if he was saying…Goldenpooch, if you like your plan, you can keep it. I can’t believe he would let me down. :(</p>