Health care navigators, insurance regulators see increase in questionable sales pitches

With a growing number of people signing up for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, regulators and health insurance navigators are seeing a troublesome counter-trend: an uptick in people enticed to sign up for coverage that isn’t right for them.

“Every day I hear from people who are grateful to have their health insurance that’s affordable and that allows them to get the health care they need,” says Julia Garvey, who helps patients sign up for coverage in the Fox Valley.

Then, from time to time, there are the red-flag cases — clients who unwittingly get hooked by unscrupulous agents or brokers who pressure them with misleading pitches, often costing them more than they’d otherwise have to pay.

“This is an issue nationally,” Garvey says. “It’s happening in other states as well.”