Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / Andrew Hetzler, chief operating officer of American Exchange.Andrew Hetzler is co-founder and chief operating officer of American Exchange, a Chattanooga-based company that helps individuals find health care coverage, from picking plans on the exchange created through the Affordable Care Act to filling in gaps related to Medicare coverage. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 made more coverage options more accessible to more people, and American Exchange, founded in 2013 by Hetzler and business partner Bobby Huffaker, has stayed on top of the changes in advising clients seeking health coverage in a complex marketplace.
“There’s a whole new demographic of people eligible for tax credits that may not know about it, so that’s one of the big changes for sure,” Hetzler says. “The lowest cost Silver plan for a married 62- and 63-year-old couple making $120,000 is $847 per month. Before the American Rescue Plan, this same plan would have been $2,028 per month.”
Who was a ‘typical’ client pre-pandemic?
Pre-pandemic, a lot of our clients fell into a few different categories, mostly people who were self-employed, sole proprietors, 1099 contractors, people not eligible for health coverage. We help a lot of college kids who are not eligible for their parents’ plan, students from other countries. Then there are two other categories. First, people between jobs, and that’s something that’s a lot larger after the pandemic, that’s a group is still pretty strong that’s in between jobs or laid off and on COBRA coverage. And then there are people who retired before 65 – they’re not working, but not eligible yet for Medicare who are 62, 63, 64 years old and either planned for it or were shocked by the costs of health care before Medicare eligibility.
How has the pandemic affected the work you’re doing, and who you’re helping?