Lancaster Physician Winter 2021 - 28

call 1-844-844-8040.

L A N C A S T E R M E D I C A L S O C I E T Y.O R G

Patient Advocacy

Pennsylvania's State-Based Health
Insurance Marketplace
CHARLES " CHACHI " ANGELO
MarComm Manager, Pennie

he way individuals and families access health
coverage has changed in Pennsylvania. Now,
shopping and purchasing quality health
insurance plans can be done through Pennie,
Pennsylvania's new state-based health insurance marketplace. For Pennsylvanians that do not receive their
insurance benefits from their employer, pennie.com is
where to go to access coverage. The plans purchased
through Pennie all cover the 10 essential health benefits
as established in the Affordable Care Act. Pennie's inaugural Open Enrollment Period ran through January 15,
2021, four weeks longer than what was offered through
the federal platform, known as Healthcare.gov.
Let's take a step back and talk about why Pennsylvania
decided to transition away from Healthcare.gov and some
of the benefits of setti ng up a state-based marketplace.
The idea was born from the question: " What if we take
the money we're spending for Healthcare.gov and do
more with it? " What happened next was nothing short
of unusual from a legislative standpoint as both sides of
the aisle unanimously voted in favor of Act 42, which was
signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf on July 2, 2019.
This created two things: a new state agency called the
Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange Authority and
the Pennsylvania Reinsurance Program, which increases
premium savings in the individual insurance marketplace.
Let's dig in a little deeper into these two statutorily
created entities.

LANCASTER

The Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange Authority
is the state agency designed to create and operate the
state-based exchange. When Act 42 was created, this
agency was tasked with building the exchange in time
to launch for the 2021 Open Enrollment. The first hire
was Executive Director Zachary Sherman, who came
from the Rhode Island state marketplace known as
HealthSourceRI. He quickly formulated the plan, built
out his team, and signed on with technology, consulting,
and marketing vendors. One of the first tasks was giving
this new entity a name. Pennie's name was designed to
represent what it is and what it does. Penn = Pennsylvania
and I.E. = Insurance Exchange. Pennie is never referred
to as an acronym, but merely an approachable, friendly,
and unbiased resource that is there to advise, guide, and
educate. In its abstractness, the brand itself was intended
to break through the insurance landscape and be different. Since it is so different, it was decided to ground the
brand with the tagline: " Connecting Pennsylvanians to
health coverage. " Pennie has been embraced by statewide
insurers, brokers, assisters, providers, and customers alike.
Health insurance, especially purchasing it, can be a fuss.
Pennie is here to help every step of the way.
The Pennsylvania Reinsurance Program is like a
400-level course in the insurance world. On a recent
episode of the Pennie Podcast, Pennsylvania Insurance
Commissioner Jessica Altman described the reinsurance
program like this: " Imagine you and your family are
in the drive-thru line with an order of burgers, fries,
and drinks. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is in

PHYSICIAN

http://www.pennie.com http://www.Healthcare.gov http://www.Healthcare.gov http://www.Healthcare.gov

Lancaster Physician Winter 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Lancaster Physician Winter 2021