Americans Want Obamacare Competition, But Millions of Exchange Customers Will Face No Insurer Choices in 2018

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 24, 2017) - Last week the government released data revealing that Obamacare exchange customers will be limited to one insurance company option in 1,332 counties across the nation. Single-insurer markets will comprise over 40 percent of U.S. counties, likely affecting over 2.3 million exchange customers, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The news of the latest reduction in Obamacare insurers comes on the heels of an AgileHealthInsurance.com poll finding that Americans want more health insurance competition and plan choices. In fact, 82 percent of adults surveyed rejected Obamacare as the only private health plan option.

Given the combination of limited exchange options and widespread consumer preference for Obamacare competition, AgileHealthInsurance.com is raising awareness of the top two health insurance options other than Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance -- health benefits insurance and short-term health insurance. Health benefit insurance is a combination of established insurance products (e.g., hospital, doctor, accident and critical illness) that can offset out-of-pocket costs and lost income by paying a set amount of money when the enrollee experiences covered medical events. Health benefit plans also include additional non-insurance benefits such as telemedicine services and can be used alongside all other forms of health insurance. Short-term health insurance is flexible and low-cost major medical insurance for individuals without expensive pre-existing health conditions.

"It is simply not acceptable that government exchange consumers in over 40 percent of the counties in America will be restricted to one Obamacare insurer option starting this open enrollment period," said Bruce Telkamp, co-founder and CEO of AgileHealthInsurance.com. "Health insurance shoppers in these single-insurer counties are at higher risk for exorbitant Obamacare premiums as well as narrow Obamacare provider networks that exclude their preferred doctors and hospital. Consumers do have other health plan choices off the government exchanges, and they need to be made aware of those options. We're stepping up our outreach in these impacted counties to raise awareness of the affordability and flexibility of health benefit insurance and short-term health insurance. We believe these insurance plans provide critical choice for consumers within affected areas, and our new online shopping experience on AgileHealthInsurance.com is the ideal place for consumers to compare and toggle between a broad portfolio of short-term and health benefit insurance plans."

While ACA plans have broad consumer awareness, alternative coverage choices have existed in the American insurance market for decades. These non-ACA options are health benefits insurance, short-term health insurance and healthcare sharing ministries. Of these three alternatives, only short-term plans and health benefit plans are technically health insurance while healthcare sharing ministries are organizations that spread medical costs across participating members and do not carry reinsurance in case claims exceed member resources. AgileHealthInsurance.com's recent poll on awareness of non-Obamacare health coverage found health benefits insurance and short-term health insurance had the highest levels of familiarity and awareness among consumers nationally. 

AgileHealthInsurance.com is a Silicon Valley-based technology company and independently managed division of Health Insurance Innovations, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIIQ). AgileHealthInsurance was created to educate consumers on the availability of affordable health insurance coverage and to provide an industry best process for comparing and purchasing these health plans. AgileHealthInsurance is a leading online distributor of short-term health insurance and health benefit insurance plans. Short-term health insurance is a flexible and low-cost major medical insurance for individuals without expensive pre-existing health conditions. Health benefit insurance is a combination of established insurance products (e.g., hospital, doctor, accident and critical illness) that can offset out-of-pocket costs and lost income by paying a set amount of money when the enrollee experiences covered medical events. Health benefit plans also include additional non-insurance benefits such as telemedicine services and can be used alongside all other forms of health insurance. Both short-term insurance and health benefit insurance plans offer consumers the flexibility to choose a health plan with the benefits that matter most to them and combine these benefits with broad or unrestricted provider networks. Additional information about AgileHealthInsurance and its industry leading health insurance solutions can be found at www.AgileHealthInsurance.com.

AgileHealthInsurance is an independently managed division of Health Insurance Innovations, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIIQ). This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical fact, and may include statements relating to goals, plans and projections regarding new markets, products, services, growth strategies, anticipated trends in our business and anticipated changes and developments in the United States health insurance system and laws. Forward-looking statements are based on our current assumptions, expectations and beliefs are generally identifiable by use of words "may," "might," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential" or "continue," or similar expressions and involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, our ability to maintain relationships and develop new relationships with health insurance carriers and distributors, our ability to retain our members, the demand for our products, the amount of commissions paid to us or changes in health insurance plan pricing practices, our ability to integrate our acquisitions, competition, changes and developments in the United States health insurance system and laws, and our ability to adapt to them, the ability to maintain and enhance our name recognition, difficulties arising from acquisitions or other strategic transactions, and our ability to build the necessary infrastructure and processes to maintain effective controls over financial reporting. These and other risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements are discussed in HIIQ's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as other documents that may be filed by HIIQ from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. You should not rely on any forward-looking statement as representing our views in the future. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.