The Perfect Storm: Misleading Marketing of Limited Benefit Products Continues as Millions Losing Medicaid Search for New Coverage
By Rachel Schwab and JoAnn Volk
A large protection transition is underway for thousands and thousands of people that have relied on Medicaid all through the COVID-19 pandemic. After a three-year pause, states have begun disenrolling residents from Medicaid, a crucial security web program for folks with low incomes that gives medical insurance to a number of the most underserved Americans. This course of will depart many of those people in want of recent protection that meets their well being care wants.
A secret shopper research performed by researchers at Georgetown University in June 2023 suggests that folks shedding Medicaid who’re eligible for high-quality, inexpensive protection by means of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) market are going through aggressive advertising of restricted profit merchandise. Despite the supply of backed market plans, deceptive gross sales techniques put thousands and thousands of former Medicaid enrollees susceptible to buying insurance policies that expose them to catastrophic well being care prices, or forgoing protection altogether.
The research discovered:
- Online searches for medical insurance led to web sites and solicitations from gross sales representatives selling restricted profit merchandise, moderately than the ACA market.
- A researcher spoke to twenty gross sales representatives utilizing two profiles of customers shedding Medicaid who’re eligible for a $0 premium plan with no deductible on the ACA market.
- None of the 20 representatives talked about the supply of a $0 market plan with no deductible.
- Over half of representatives tried to promote the customers restricted profit merchandise.
- Representatives incessantly made false or deceptive statements that hid the restrictions of restricted profit merchandise or misrepresented the supply or affordability of market plans. Most representatives promoting restricted profit merchandise additionally refused to supply written plan info.
- Many representatives, notably these promoting restricted profit merchandise, used aggressive gross sales techniques, reminiscent of pressuring customers to decide to a plan over the telephone or suggesting that plans would grow to be unavailable or costlier in the event that they took extra time to have a look at their choices or price range.
You can learn the total report right here.
CHIR thanks The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for his or her beneficiant assist of this research.
Financial Interest Disclosure: Rachel Schwab serves as a Senior Research Associate within the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. She has additionally served as a guide for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Inc.