HIRSP Extended?

The plan I'm on currently is called HIRSP. It is a plan that pools high risk people and people with pre-existing conditions in the state of Wisconsin. There were hoops to jump through to get it, but once I got it, it was a wonderful plan. But, with ObamaCare is running, there is no need for HIRSP. So HIRSP was slated for ending Dec 31, 2013.

In order to have uninterrupted coverage, it is necessary to sign up by December 15. Signing up from December 16 to December 31 will cause the new plan to start on February 1. But, the website doesn't really quite work yet. The fact that an application can get corrupted and then can't be deleted is a problem. A lot of people seem to be flailing with corrupted applications trying to make them work. HHS is not forthcoming on the workaround of using a second email address to start the application process over.

Anyway, the result was that just after President Obama had his news conference saying he would allow insurance plans to continue to offer their junkier insurance plans to people who like their junky plans, Governor Walker announced he'd call a special session and push through legislation that would extend Medicaid and HIRSP to March 31, 2014. This would give HHS 3 extra months to get the website working and give 3 extra months to current HIRSP policyholders to get a new plan.

I think the extension to 3/31 is a good thing. In fact, though I knew that HIRSP would no longer be needed on January 1, I would have put money on the end of HIRSP being April 1. This would have given HIRSP members time to move over and would spread the load of insurance switch overs over 3 months instead of one second.

I already signed up for a plan (I think), and it is a bit more expensive than HIRSP, but I'm just going to go with the new plan rather than try to switch back to HIRSP and save on 3 months of premiums. I suspect I'll get a letter in the mail soon explaining what I'll have to do to officially unenroll in HIRSP on Jan 1.

And there is only a month left before the December 15 deadline for signing up, so if this legislation falls through, people will be hurting. The Wisconsin legislature better hurry.