LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The uninsured and others have time to sign up for private insurance under the federal health care law without facing a tax penalty.
But one Michigan insurance executive doubts much new enrollment will occur before the March 31 deadline and cautions that the net number of people buying their own insurance in Michigan could stay flat this year.
Priority Health's chief marketing officer Joan Budden told The Associated Press that the insurer saw a 30 percent jump in customers buying individual plans in the last quarter. But most new customers switched from insurers that canceled their policies or from employers who dropped coverage.
Priority projected Michigan's individual insurance market could double this year because of the health law, but Budden doesn't think the industry has gotten a fraction of that.
