Public Service Announcement for ILLINOIS 'LAND OF LINCOLN' ENROLLEES!

An important reminder from an anonymous tipster for any Illinois resident who was enrolled in a policy via the now-defunct "Land of Lincoln" Co-Op:

Hey hey. Just wanted to pass some info to you in case you can get it out there. As of last week (not sure the date - either the 15th or the week after) only 34% of LOLH members had taken advantage of the SEP. Spoke with legislators yesterday to get the word out, but since the deadline is Friday, we are trying to get the word out for people to get enrolled.

To review:

The failure of Land of Lincoln has triggered a "special enrollment" period under the federal Affordable Care Act that will allow the insurer's approximately 39,000 individual enrollees to pick a new plan for the last three months of the year on Healthcare.gov, the federal health insurance marketplace. The notice advised employers who purchased group coverage from the company to contact their insurance agent or broker to explore their options. Land of Lincoln has about 10,000 group enrollees.

According to the notice, the special enrollment period will run from Aug. 2 through Sept. 30, for coverage starting on Oct. 1. There will be a second enrollment period from Oct. 1 through Nov. 29, for coverage starting on the first of the following month.

I'm not sure how the 10,000 group enrollees are being handled; presumably that's in the hands of their employers, who have hopefully arranged for other coverage by now.

As for the 39,000 individual LoL enrollees, 34% would be roughly 13,300 people who've found new coverage; let's call it an even 14K by now. That means there's up to 25,000 others who only have three more days to find temporary coverage through the end of the year, assuming they don't want to have a coverage gap.

If they miss the Friday deadline, they can still enroll between 10/01 - 10/31 for coverage running 2 months (November - December), or 11/01 - 11/29 for coverage in December only. Of course, they'll still have to enroll in coverage for 2017 as well...

Anyway, if you know any Land of Lincoln enrollees, make sure they're aware of this.