Young enrollees crucial to exchange success

DECISION PENDING: Tori Hitchiner, a 26-year-old URI graduate, is weighing her insurance options with HealthSource RI now operational. / PBN PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE
DECISION PENDING: Tori Hitchiner, a 26-year-old URI graduate, is weighing her insurance options with HealthSource RI now operational. / PBN PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE

Of the 4,400 applications for health insurance for individuals processed in the first month of HealthSource RI, the state’s new health-insurance exchange, 26-year-old Tori’s Hitchiner wasn’t among them.
Hitchiner is still weighing her options. She’s one of those young people national health care leaders are hoping to convince to buy health coverage to make the Affordable Care Act a success.
“I definitely want to get health insurance. I’m not one of those people who thinks I’m invulnerable,” said Hitchiner, a 2011 journalism graduate of the University of Rhode Island who is living with her parents in Scituate and working full time since September at a child care facility.
Hitchiner’s employer does offer a health plan, but she didn’t sign up right away because she knew the state exchange would be coming online in October and she wanted to compare coverage and cost.
She had been on her parents’ health insurance until she turned 26 in February and the gap of a few months in coverage seemed short enough to be safe.
“My thought was I need health insurance, but it’s not immediately pressing,” said Hitchiner. Hitchiner wasn’t sure if she could buy insurance through the exchange because her employer offers a plan – she’s still not sure but plans to find out.
Rhode Island has “full employee choice” for employees of companies with 50 or fewer employees, with some requirements, said Dara Chadwick, spokeswoman for HealthSource RI.
First, the company has to decide whether or not it will participate in the exchange. If not, and it offers a plan that meets the federal requirements, the employee cannot buy through the state exchange.
Hitchiner isn’t sure yet if her employer has 50 employees because the company has more than one location.
If the small business does participate in the exchange, the company picks a plan and the employee can take the company plan or choose another through the exchange and apply the company’s allowed premium. Hitchiner has talked about health insurance with her co-workers.
“As far as the people I work with, everyone who needs insurance has it. Some are under 26 and are still on their parents’ plan, some have the company plan and some are on their husband’s plan,” she said.
Attracting young people such as Hitchiner will be a key component of HealthSource RI’s success, said Chadwick. “We have been focusing on the small-employer market and younger people may be getting information about health insurance there. We’ve gone to different community groups.”
HealthSource RI doesn’t have data available yet on the ages of those buying insurance, but that may be available in mid-December, said Chadwick.
Anecdotal information is that many residents who have not been able to afford health insurance are now getting in contact with HealthSource RI.
“I’ve been hearing that we’ve had a lot of interest from entrepreneurs, artists and musicians.” said Chadwick.
Before Hitchiner found herself in the post-26-year-old gap in coverage, she had a previous phase when she didn’t have health insurance. The gap lasted a couple of years, from after college until she was 24, before changes in federal regulations allowed young people to stay on their parents’ plan until age 26.
“I didn’t have dental insurance, so I just didn’t go for my regular dental check-ups and cleanings,” said Hitchiner. “I’m still trying to undo all that damage.”
After getting more information from HealthSource RI and her employer, she will review her budget, which includes a car payment, auto insurance, $1,000 a month in repayment of student loans and hopes of getting her own place to live.
“I’m going to sit down at the dining room table and go over everything with my mother,” said Hitchiner. •

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