In a move designed to help low-income people sign up for health insurance, the Obama administration says that it will require insurance companies that participate in health-insurance exchanges must accept prepaid card payments:
As per the norms laid down by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), any underwriter participating in the new health-insurance exchange will have to accept payment from consumers in several different forms.
The proposed payment alternative comprises prepaid debit cards, cashier’s checks and money orders, as well as paper cheques and bank-account transfers.
The new health care law will likely cause a number of changes for the prepaid business as companies rethink how they offer benefits, and as individuals consider all of their options including health savings accounts and flexible spending plans. In Mercator’s Tenth Annual U.S. Open-Loop Prepaid Cards Market Assessment, we found that the HSA/FSA prepaid segment loads were the fastest growing open-loop segment.
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