The government's health exchange website HealthCare.gov may or may not be functioning perfectly by the end of this month, the administration's promised deadline, so private insurers are seeking a way to bypass the site and
capture those new customers.
Some major health insurers are so worried about the Obama administration’s ability to fix its troubled health care website that they are pushing the government to create a shortcut that would allow them to enroll people entitled to subsidies directly rather than through the federal system. [...]
So far, the administration has resisted the idea, partly because of concerns about giving insurance companies access to personal data. People familiar with the matter said no such modifications are planned, and even some insurers are not holding out much hope.
But senior White House officials said the administration was open to ways in which insurers could handle more enrollments and had stepped up efforts to make that possible because of the technical problems with the site.
The privacy hurdle is a huge one, and one that really should sink this idea. Imagine the field day House Republicans would have with the idea that the government was feeding confidential financial and tax information and immigration status about people to insurance companies. A compromise plan could allow insurers enough information to estimate subsidies, but leave the verification for later. That also has some issues, because it would require consumers to share private information with insurers. Another possibility would be a tool to allow individuals to figure out their own subsidies before shopping, but insurers aren't thrilled with that idea because of possibility that insurers would sell a plan on the basis of flawed information, and might end up having to eat the costs if the person overestimated the amount of subsidy they qualify for.
Eventually, HealthCare.gov is going to work. Insurers would rather it be now than later, so they know what they're going to be dealing with in the next year. They want it working now so that the entire population of would-be enrollees signs up early on, not just the truly desperate who are signing up as soon as possible because of their health issues. The interest of insurers in getting it working is a good thing, and it's something that potentially could be leveraged by the administration in their efforts to keep insurers from dumping grandfathered health plans.