With the election of Donald Trump as the 45^th President of the United States, changes are coming to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The process has already started in Congress to fully repeal the law, leaving millions wondering what will happen to their coverage.

From an insurance agency standpoint, the answer to that is: we don’t fully know, yet. Some analysts estimate that any changes to the law would take 18-24 months to fully implement. As stated in BenefitsPro.com’s February magazine, the ACA is the law, and will remain so until it’s not. In other words, it will take agreement from the Senate and House of Representatives to fully repeal the law. In the meantime, those on all sides of the debate wait to see what comes next. In the same edition of Benefits Pro (Feb, 2017), experts say they are following several key areas: finding more control on pricing of health care; legislation that may lower costs to insurance providers, and ultimately consumers; more transparency from providers and hospitals to help insureds understand what they are paying and what they are paying for; and potentially more free market competition. None of these changes are in place, or necessarily going to be made. These are simply some areas that could see changes.

Scott Wooldridge, in his article “Interesting Times” (Benefits Pro, Jan. 2017) points out that some of the uncertainty and change when the ACA became law has forced buyers and sellers of insurance to become more flexible. It also has made consumers become smarter with the health insurance market, trying to understand the aspects of the coverage and the care they are receiving. Wooldridge includes a quote from Lance Shnider, President of Voluntary Benefits Agency, who expects any major changes to the law to not happen until 2019, and even then, many elements of the ACA (such as pre-existing conditions, coverage for children up to age 26) to remain intact: “Maybe it won’t be called Obamacare or ACA anymore, but at the end of the day, some version of it will still exist.”

While this has tended to be a very emotionally charged political debate, in the end, the goal is to make health care available and affordable to as many people as possible. And while we don’t know what specific changes are coming, local agents are working to stay on top of the changes. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your local agent. If they don’t know for sure, they can work to find the answer, especially in this ever-changing climate.

Each insurance policy is unique. While some generalities can be made, each situation should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This is not considered advice on any specific insurance matter. Please contact an agent to discuss any concerns you may have.