Calif. Insurance Commissioner: More Than 1M Californians Having Insurance Cancelled Due To ACA

From CBS News:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS Sacramento/AP) — Health insurer Anthem Blue Cross of California has agreed to a two-month extension of about 104,000 individual policies after failing to give the required 90-day cancellation notice, state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced Tuesday.

The policies had been set to expire on Dec. 31 but will be extended until Feb. 28 for those who choose to re-enroll. Notices informing customers of the extension will be sent out this week, Anthem said.

Jones said the company notified the Department of Insurance that it failed to give enough notice because of a computer glitch and voluntarily offered to extend the policies.

Anthem spokesman Darrel Ng said a subset of individual customers was “inadvertently omitted from the original mailing” notifying them that their policies were being terminated. He declined to say how many Anthem customers were being notified their policies were ending.

More than 1 million cancellation notices have been sent to Californians as the Affordable Care Act begins allowing individuals to buy insurance through exchanges, Jones said. The federal law requires policies to offer minimum levels of coverage, forcing companies to terminate many existing plans. But Jones said that under the law, insurers have another year to do so.