Premera: Many Alaskans stay with existing policies

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - A spokeswoman for the largest health insurance company in Alaska says more than 80 percent of individual health care policy holders whose plans do not meet requirements of the federal health care law opted to stick with their plan through 2014.

Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield sent cancellation notices last year to about 5,360 policy holders in Alaska because their plans didn’t meet requirements of the law. However, President Barack Obama laid out a plan in November that gave insurers the option to continue offering into 2014 plans that would otherwise be canceled, provided state insurance commissioners signed off.

Premera spokeswoman Melanie Coon says about 90 percent of people with plans that were grandfathered in under the law stayed on those plans instead of opting for a new plan.