Less-costly Alternative to Obamacare Insurance

"A fast-growing, short-term alternative to ObamaCare that allows customers to get cheap, one-year policies could put the government-subsidized plan into a death spiral," reports Fox News.

The plans, the only ones allowed for sale outside of ObamaCare exchanges, generally cost less than half of what similar ObamaCare policies cost, and are increasing in popularity as uninsured Americans grapple with the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The catch -- that the policies only last for a year -- is not much of a deterrent, given that customers can sign up for ObamaCare during open-enrollment periods if their short-term coverage is not renewed.

These short term plans, which have a typical premium of $100 per month, are less costly than Obamacare plans with an average cost of $271 per month, and they allow the patient to choose any doctor or hospital.

Health Insurance Innovations estimates that the short-term insurance industry as a whole has grown at 20-30 percent over the last year since ObamaCare was implemented. McLean, of eHealthInsurance.com, said the plans appeal to young people.

“They're particularly popular with young adults," she said. "Forty-six percent of our short term policy holders are between the ages of 25 and 34.”

One conservative youth advocacy group, Generation Opportunity, specifically endorses buying short-term plans as a way to get around ObamaCare.

“We think it is an excellent option for young people,” the group’s president, Evan Feinberg, said, though he added that it isn’t perfect.

“We don’t think this is an ideal way to do health insurance in general. People should be free to insure themselves both against short-term catastrophic costs and the long term need for permanent medical care,” he said. “Unfortunately there are people who take away that choice from us based on a misguided idea that they can run a healthcare system from Washington that meets the needs of hundreds of millions of Americans.”