Changes to Obamacare Enrollment Rules Boost Value of Short-Term Health Coverage

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 17, 2017) - AgileHealthInsurance.com is calling attention to the increased importance of short-term health coverage given newly approved enrollment regulations for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) market. Consumers who miss the normal enrollment period will face a longer lock-out period from Obamacare in 2018 as well as a harder time obtaining permission to enroll late on a government exchange. As a consequence, short-term health insurance's year-round availability for major medical benefits will take on even greater value within the private health insurance market.

The new regulation cuts the length of the next Obamacare annual enrollment period in half and makes it more difficult to obtain a special enrollment period. The annual enrollment period for 2018 Affordable Care Act plans will begin Nov. 1, 2017, and end only six weeks later on Dec. 15. Health insurance buyers who fail to enroll during this time will confront more stringent documentation requirements for a special enrollment period should they choose to buy Obamacare insurance before the next annual enrollment period.

The government has issued new enrollment restrictions in an attempt to stabilize the Obamacare health insurance market. The Obamacare market has been hampered by high medical claims, leading to rate spikes and insurer exits due to losses. The government believes that one of the contributing factors to the high medical claims are consumers who wait until they need health care before enrolling in Obamacare coverage. The new enrollment restrictions seek to reduce the incidence of this trend.

"The government's new enrollment restrictions make short-term health insurance more important than any other time in its 30-year history," said Bruce Telkamp, CEO of AgileHealthInsurance.com. "For those consumers who find themselves locked out of the Obamacare market, short-term health coverage will be an indispensible safety net to avoid joining the ranks of the uninsured."

More information on short-term health insurance coverage and plan options can be found at AgileHealthInsurance.com.

AgileHealthInsurance.com was created to educate people about the benefits of short-term health insurance and provide a fast, online process for purchasing these plans. Short term health insurance is a flexible and low-cost major medical insurance for individuals without expensive pre-existing health conditions. It is not Obamacare. Short-term health plans offer consumers the flexibility to choose health plans with the benefits that matter most to them and combine these benefits with broad provider networks. Additional information about AgileHealthInsurance can be found at www.AgileHealthInsurance.com.

AgileHealthInsurance is a Silicon Valley based technology company and 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.