Health insurance broker sounds alarm as some plans now have enrollment caps

A health insurance broker is sounding the alarm to help make sure people get the plan they want and the most for their money.

These warnings are for the more than a million Minnesotans eligible for Medicare — one of his biggest concerns is something new for this year: some providers 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, adding he’s never seen it before in the state.  

Rockwood says these plans are now being treated as “first come, first serve.”

“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. 

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Another factor he’s warning people about is that some providers are not automatically re-enrolling people to similar plans, as they’ve done in previous years. Rockwood says, though, that doesn’t mean there aren’t similar plans 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’s also heard from clients about limited customer assistance — sharing some have waited for more than an hour on the phone, only to still have questions.

“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.”

Open enrollment for Medicare runs through Dec. 7 — the state also has resources to help.

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