The federal insurance marketplace opens Saturday for the start of the second enrollment period. This is part of the Affordable Care Act, the law that went into effect last year requiring all Americans have health insurance.
In 2014, Arizona had some of the lowest cost insurance premiums in the nation. David Sayen is with the arm of the Department of Health and Human Services that operates the federal insurance marketplace. He said this year the Arizona market is more competitive.
“We’ve got three new issuers, which are Assurant health, Phoenix Health Plans Incorporated and United Healthcare," said Sayen. "Many of these issuers and the existing issuers have lowered premiums or given more options based on what they found out consumers wanted last year.”
Even though new insurers entered the marketplace, some plans that weren’t popular no longer exist. Maricopa County had 209 plans last year and this year only 138 plans are available.
