Concord Monitor – November 12, 2024
By DAVID BROOKS
A fifth company will be offering health insurance to eligible individuals in New Hampshire in 2025 as the state enters the annual open enrollment period. WellSense Health Plan, a nonprofit health insurance company in Massachusetts, will be offering several levels of health insurance starting Jan. 1. It joins Anthem Health Plans, Matthew Thornton Health Plan, Ambetter from NH Healthy Families and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to offer plans in New Hampshire next year.
Open enrollment for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Individual Marketplace, which is not available to most people who have health insurance through their employer, lasts through Jan. 15, 2025. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to push for limiting or ending the ACA, so enrollment in future years may be different. WellSense already offers Medicare and Medicaid in New Hampshire. It says it has more than 680,000 members across Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It was founded more than 25 years ago as Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan.
The New Hampshire Insurance Department announced WellSense’s addition in a release that touted a study by the company WalletHub, which ranked New Hampshire fifth among states with the best health care systems, based on 44 measures of cost, accessibility and quality of outcomes.
The study said New Hampshire’s average premium is the lowest in the United States at $325, although the state ranked fifth in overall cost due to higher costs in some areas of health care after insurance coverage. For more information about signing up for health insurance through the ACA, see www.HealthCare.gov