Health insurance broker warns some Medicare plans now have enrollment limits

A health insurance broker is raising concerns in an effort to help people choose the right plan and get the best value for their money.

The warning applies to more than a million Minnesotans who qualify for Medicare. One of the biggest issues, he says, is a new development this year: some providers are placing caps on certain plans.

“You could wake up in two weeks, you could wake up in two days, and the plan you were thinking about is gone. And when it’s gone, it’s gone,” Grant Rockwood of MN Benefits told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, saying he has never seen that happen in the state before.

Rockwood said those plans are now being handled on a “first come, first serve” basis.

“There’s been one company that’s been clear about [it], at least to brokers, that say, ‘Hey, this plan is at, after the first day it was at over 50% capacity.’ Then they said after last week it was at like 90% capacity,” he added.

He also cautioned that some providers are no longer automatically moving people into similar plans, as they have in past years. Even so, Rockwood noted that comparable options are still available.

“When they receive these initial notices, perhaps it’s hard to capture that in a letter, but it’s not clear to people that ‘Oh, I do have [very] similar options with the same company the next year,'” Rockwood said.

He has also heard from clients that customer support can be difficult to reach, with some people waiting more than an hour on the phone and still needing answers.

“That real guidance is harder to come by,” Rockwood said. “These carriers [just aren’t] set up the way they used to be with a … large number of internal employees there to answer questions.”

Medicare open enrollment continues through Dec. 7, and state resources are available to help.