Managers of HealthCare.gov have gotten 7,350 insurance agents and brokers registered to sell health insurance exchange plans through its enrollment system for 2018, in spite of continuing uncertainty about how the individual major medical market will work in 2018.
As of Thursday, HealthCare.gov managers had registered 1,639 of those agents and brokers to sell group exchange plans, even though, in the past, HealthCare.gov group plan sales have been so low managers have never released group plan sales figures.
At this point, HealthCare.gov agent and broker registration totals for 2018 appear to be about 47% of what the 2017 open enrollment period producer registration totals were at this point a year ago.
The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, or CCIIO, has published the agent and broker registration figures for the 2018 open enrollment period on its registration status verification website.
Open enrollment for 2018 is set to start Nov. 1 and end Dec. 15 in the states that use HealthCare.gov.
CCIIO is using the National Association of Health Underwriters, America's Health Insurance Plans and Litmos, a unit of Callidus Software Inc., to help with producer training. Agents and brokers can also get their training through a government-run system.
CCIIO registers agents only for HealthCare.gov states. California, Colorado, Maryland and other states that have their own state-based exchange programs have separate producer certification arrangements.
CCIIO: The HealthCare.gov Agency
Drafters of the Affordable Care Act created the public health insurance exchange system, or family of web-based health insurance supermarkets, in an effort to give consumers an easy way to shop for health coverage on the web.
(Image: iStock)
Originally, ACA drafters assumed that most or all states would run their own ACA exchange programs.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set up HealthCare.gov to handle ACA exchange and account administration services in states that were unable or unwilling to handle the job.
