What to Expect in 2017

Greetings everyone. Thanks for taking your time here. My name is Lynn Marble. I’m the principle general managing agent for Phoenix Health and Life Insurance. And you’re getting this message today because you’ve either been a past, or are currently a present client of ours. Our job is to deliver a message to you, help keep you informed.

Rather than sending out a long dissertated email, we figured it’d be best that you hear it directly from us, as to what’s going on with this upcoming annual enrollment period. Here’s what’s going on. Unfortunately it’s not going to be a lot of good news. 2017 is going to throw us a curve ball like we’ve never seen before. We are seeing the beginning of the implosion of the ObamaCare market on the individual health insurance market, so not group, not Medicare, but the individual health insurance market. If we’re talking about individual health insurance, one thing I want to let you know is that if your plan was purchased prior to January 1st of 2014, and it’s ever been called Grandmother to Grandfather, we’re not talking to you.

If your plan was purchased after that, I am talking to you. Why? Because you are going to lose your plan this year. You’re going to lose your doctors, you’re going to lose your hospitals, and unfortunately there’s just not a lot that we can do about it. As we stand at this very moment, on September 20th, 2016, we are looking at having one carrier in the Maricopa county area. And that’s Cigna. Cigna’s based around Cigna Medical Groups, there’s 20 of them located here in the valley, and they’re going to refer only to the banner network. There will be no Honor Health, Scottsdale Healthcare Systems, John C. Lincoln. There’s going to be no Dignity, no IASIS, no Abrazo Healthcare systems available. So, many of you will lose your doctors.

So, what are we going to do about it? Well, we’re going to do the best we can. We have over 850 clients that we’re going to try to assist, and I want you to know that we have a couple of strategies. We’re going to touch base a little bit on that, and then we’re going to follow up with some more detail oriented videos, so that you’ve got a good idea and understanding about what’s going on before you contact us. Here’s the basic strategies. If you’re self employed, we need you to know that it takes as little as two people to form an employer group health insurance plan. If we can form an employer group plan, we can take you back to large PPO network, not the smaller HMO network. We can take you back to a product that’s going to be far more rate stable, that’s something that you can control, better benefits, but we’re going to have to do it under a group insurance plan.

The other option that we can go to is something that we’re leading the edge… Or we’re leading the industry on, and that is offering a health share ministry option. The health share ministry products are not going to be for everybody because they will not cover a lot of pre-existing conditions. They are not technically health insurance, but their pricing is phenomenal, and they’ll serve the purpose for what many Americans are looking for. They are biblically-based, and therefore do fall under the ObamaCare exemption for the ObamaCare penalty, so that there’s no penalty. They are based on large PPO network, pricing is very aggressive, but again, if pre-existing conditions is a concern for you that may not be the right fit.

Our goal is to let you know, right now we’re looking at one carrier, that could change by the end of this month. It could be changed by the end of this week. We’ve lost Etna, Humana, United, Health Choice, Phoenix Health Plan, Assure, Meritus, Blue Cross Blue Shield. We’ve lost all of these carriers over this last year, that are not going to be participating in 2017. This is why we want to communicate this message to you. Let’s start working on something now, so that we’re not waiting ’til the last minute.

I’m also going to ask that you continue to work with us, but I’ve got a team of associate agents, Troy Chevalier, Stacy Petro, Stacy Howard, and myself. We’re all here to do what’s best for you. We ask that you get on our calendar, contact us at 623-516-8300. Start scheduling your appointments for after November 1st. In the meantime, look for more videos and blog posts to come so that you can kind of get adjusted to what’s about to happen here, and we can get an idea of what strategies are best for you and your family. Thanks for taking the time, and we look forward to working with you here for the rest of the year.

Published By:

Phoenix Health Insurance – Lynn Marble
20823 N Cave Creek Rd, Building B Suite 101
Phoenix, AZ 85024

Office: 623-516-8300
Email: lynnmarble@phxhealthinsurance.com
Website: phxhealthinsurance.com