A 2018 federal rule changed how short-term health plans are defined, allowing the plans to be sold as full-year substitute coverage, much longer than the previous three-month limit.
For the market scan, researchers assessed health plans’ marketing tactics before (October) and during (November) the most recent open enrollment period in 2018. RWJF and the Urban Institute examined 256 search results and 65 websites, using Google Incognito to search terms like “cheap health insurance,” “ACA enroll,” and “short-term health insurance.”
The researchers found that consumers shopping for health plans online by using these search terms were often directed to websites and brokers selling non-ACA-compliant health plans.
“These websites and brokers often fail to provide consumers with the plan information necessary to inform their purchase. Brokers selling [short-term health plans] over the phone push consumers to purchase the insurance quickly, without providing written information,” according to RWJF and the Urban Institute.
The market scan noted that state officials don’t have comprehensive data on which insurers actively advertise short-term health plans to consumers, though most state regulators said they have started to track down this information.
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