Missouri will allow health insurance companies to continue offering policies that otherwise would have been canceled under the terms of the new federal health care law.
Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon announced Thursday that the state will let insurers sell individual and small-group policies in 2014 that were to be canceled because they didn't meet federal coverage requirements taking effect next year.
John Huff, director of the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions, and Professional Registration, says his office has not found any Missouri law that would prohibit coverage from continuing, and that they will continue working with insurers in Missouri to meet customer needs.
“We built a process to expedite insurance companies to get those products reapproved for sale in 2014,” says Huff.
He says that anyone whose policy was canceled should contact their insurance company to see if it's still available.
"If the insurance company has already discontinued that product or withdrawn it from the market, then we've built a process to help the insurance company move very quickly to get that plan approved with the regulator and then make it available to consumers," Huff says.
Missouri's decision comes after President Barack Obama recently proposed to allow those customers to keep their existing insurance policies for another year.
