Arkansas health insurance tips

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Arkansas insurance law and regulation

The Arkansas Insurance DepartmentWeb site contains very little information about individual health insurance and is not a significant resource for individuals shopping for insurance exchange. The department Web site contains information about procedures for filing consumer complaints.
The state insurance department’s consumer assistance program can be reached by telephone at 855-332-2227, by email at Insurance.Consumers@arkansas.govor by mail at 1200 West Third Street, Little Rock AR 72201. The state children’s health insurance plan (CHIP) Web site is Arkansas ARKids First.

News that affects your health insurance and planning

May 24, 2019 – Status of alternative non-ACA health plans: Arkansas does not require individuals to maintain ACA-compliant health coverage. The state provides no premium or cost-sharing subsidies for individual market coverage, permits insurers to sell non-compliant transitional policies in the individual market and does not limit the sale of short-term coverage more strictly than the federal government. Data source: Commonwealth Fund).

March 19, 2019 – There were 58,915 Arkansans enrolled in individual Obamacare plans offered through Healthcare.gov as of March 1, when the state announced that it is immediately taking over operation of the state’s health insurance exchange.

The history of health care planning in Arkansas (Information is outdated and links may be expired)

There were more than 157,000 diabetics reported in Arkansas as of the end of 2007, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of diabetics is expected to increase significantly each year through at least 2025. Arkansas statute ST §23-79-601 enacted in 1997 requires regulated health plans to include coverage for diabetes. Yet diabetics face difficult challenges finding and keeping individual health insurance. For those not eligible for Medicare, Medicaid or employer-provided group coverage, the health plan choices are severely limited. Freedom Benefits offers a range of reference materials to help explain the laws that govern this area of health insurance as well as a list of specific insurance plans and other coverage options.