MIAMI.- Obamacare is a colloquial term used to describe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). This legislation was enacted in 2010 to facilitate community access to health insurance.
Univista, a company with more than 230 offices and 3,000 agents in the country, is one of the leading organizations in providing the community with the plans for this program, whose registration period began this year on November 1 and ends on January 15, 2024.
Iván Herrera, president of Univista, spoke with DIARIO LAS AMERICAS about the scope of the program and the need to have a health insurance to avoid problems with credit when a person faces an emergency health and you don’t have a plan to back it up.
How has the behavior of affiliations to the health insurance known as Obamacare been this year?
We have realized that this year the community has become much more aware of what health insurance is. We are surprised by the number of calls we have received from people interested in having health insurance. This gives you an important measurement. I don’t know if it was due to COVID or if it was due to any other factor. Whatever it was, this has moved people to be aware that with health insurance they will be fine. For many years we have been at the forefront of what medical insurance is, even before it was called Obamacare, which Obama’s is nothing more than a health plan that they gave that name to, but it is still medical insurance where the People pay a minimum based on income and the rest is subsidized by the government. What does this mean? Let’s assume that someone’s policy costs $300 or $400 a month. So, the salary is used as a formula to set your price and many times people pay zero of that money. That is, it is something that the government is putting money into to cover because people qualify because they have low income.
What are the times for registration in this program?
For many years, registration closing dates have always varied, as has the amount of the insured’s income. The start date of the so-called Open Enrollment has always been the same. As the companies that offer this service already have more experience distributing this product in South Florida and the rest of the country, on December 15 there was a cutoff so that the person can start insured on January 1. Because? Because people will have 15 days to make the first payment and the insurance company can keep track of who paid or who did not pay, and so people can start the year with their insurance. But as of December 15, people who begin insured will have their policy valid from February 1.
But the Open Enrollment deadline is January 15. What happens from that moment on?
Yes, on that date the Open Enrollment as such ends. Last year and the year before, as the COVID pandemic was going on and people were arriving, many had lost their jobs and others moved to this part of the country, they had the registration period open almost all year to join this insurance.
How much has the volume of insured people grown this year?
People can’t imagine the number of people who called me when they felt bad or a family member and didn’t have health insurance. I understand that when we arrive here from our countries we face situations that are American customs and we have the need to adapt. In our countries there is often no insurance; the only certain thing was death. We arrive here and we want to live as if we were there. But what happens? That when we enter a hospital for any reason, no one has bought life, and then we fall into a financial burden for credit, they start sending us bills, we cannot pay them and in the end our credit ends up destroyed and many other things that, Until they touch us, we don’t realize it. When we had the pandemic there were many people who called me telling me that they did not have health insurance and we were able to solve that problem because there was the special Open Enrollment period, but when they close it there is no opportunity to re-enroll in health insurance. We have to wait until next year. At our company, enrollment volume has almost doubled and this may be in response to the large number of people entering South Florida. There are around 250,000 Cubans in South Florida of the almost 400,000 who have entered through the border and need health insurance. There are also many people who had Medicaid and it has been eliminated and they have to be insured.
In general terms, what medical services can a person who enrolls in this health plan obtain?
This medical insurance is very complete. Obamacare plans depend on income and also the quality of the plan taken. If you want a plan with zero deductible, it will not be the top of the plans, it will not be ‘Gold’ or ‘Platinum’, but it can also be adjusted according to the co-payment. While this is a financial burden for the government, it is not the same for individuals because many did not have the opportunity to access insurance and before Obamacare the plans were selective. When you came with a pre-existing condition, they didn’t accept you. We are talking, for example, about diabetes, heart problems; They eliminated that, so they can’t discriminate, they can’t stop accepting people with pre-existing conditions, everyone qualifies, and that’s the good part of this program. Even in cases of catastrophic health damage, these plans can cover open heart surgery or cerebrovascular surgery.
How has Univista become one of the leading companies in offering Obamacare plans?
We start from the first year. We even called Congress to see how it was going to be distributed and not even Congress itself knew how they were going to do it. We are talking about two months before starting Obamacare. Let us remember that President Obama in his first term did nothing for health and in his second term they forced him to come up with something like this, that no one knew how to put to work. I personally saw that they sold Obamacare plans even in pet stores. Anyone without a license could sell them. They have already regulated it much more. The good thing about doing it with Univista is that our offices are open 365 days a year, 30 days a month, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are open to all those people who want to not only sign up for Obamacare, but also to those who have questions and our agents are there to answer every day of the year.
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