The number of Kentuckians who have to upgrade their health insurance plans under the new federal healthcare law is lower than expected.Initial reports indicated that about 280,000 insured Kentuckians would be forced to switch to new plans to comply with the Affordable Care Act.The Kentucky Department of Insurance reports that the number is now closer to 168,000 people.“There still was an opportunity there to, you know, take the new plan or go to the exchange and look around," says Ronda Sloan, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Insurance. "I mean, nobody was really left without coverage. And that, I think, was the argument early on, is these people are losing their coverage and they weren’t losing their coverage.”The change comes as new data shows that nearly 50,000 policyholders in Kentucky were “grandfathered” into ACA-compliant plans, and nearly 64,000 were allowed an extra year to take advantage of new plans offered through the state’s health insurance exchange.(Image via Shutterstock)
