NU Online News Service, Dec. 27, 12:55 p.m. – AARP, Washington, says it is postponing the enrollment deadline for its AARP Health Care Options Program to Feb. 28, 2002, from Dec. 31, to give AARP members more time to decide what to do about health coverage.
The program sells guaranteed issue Medicare supplement insurance, or “Medigap” coverage, underwritten by a unit of UnitedHealth Group Inc., Minnetonka, Minn.
Many older Americans use the AARP Medigap program as an alternative to the troubled Medicare health maintenance organization programs. Private health insurers were enthusiastic about the program in the mid-1990s, but they have since retrenched because of problems with higher-than-expected costs and lower-than-expected government reimbursement rates.