Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karin Weldin Stewart is scheduling meetings with representatives from health insurers in her state that are dropping child-only coverage.
Health insurers in many states are dropping, or thinking about dropping, child-only policies in response to provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), a major component of the Affordable Care Act, that prohibit carriers that offer child-only coverage from considering pre-existing conditions when deciding whether to sell health coverage to a child.
The provisions are taking effect for health insurance and health plan years starting on or after
Sept. 23.
Insurers say letting parents of children with health problems sign up for coverage at any time, without any regard to health status, could lead to severe antiselection, by encouraging parents to pay for coverage when and only when children are sick.
Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) say states can address concerns about antiselection by using open-enrollment program rules, to ensure that all plans operate on a "level playing field" and discouraging parents from waiting until children have health problems to pay for coverage.
Some of the states that have announced new open-enrollment programs or other moves to keep child-only carriers in the market include Colorado, Indiana, Ohio and Washington state.
In Delaware, several carriers have stopped individual child-only policies, and that creates an "unacceptable circumstance here in Delaware as well as elsewhere throughout the nation,"
Weldin Stewart says in a comment posted on the department's website.
While the Delaware Department of Insurance considers its options, Weldin Stewart is requiring carriers that have stopped writing child-only policies to meet with her to make sure that no child's health is affected.
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