Anthem Drops Obamacare In Ohio: 300,000 Without Insurance? Gruber Strikes Again
by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
ZeroHedge.com
Jun 7, 2017
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s attempt to replace Obamacare was sheer madness. Left alone, Obamacare was imploding anyway. Republicans should have waited for Democrats to beg them to “do something”.
Left alone, Obamacare was imploding anyway. Republicans should have waited for Democrats to beg them to “do something”.
Republicans should have waited for Democrats to beg them to “do something”.
Bloomberg reports Insurer’s Obamacare Exit Could Leave 300,000 Without Options.
Anthem Inc.’s decision to quit Ohio’s Obamacare market will leave 13,000 people without any coverage option under the program next year. That number may rise to 300,000 if the health insurer follows suit in the rest of the states where it sells.
Anthem, which currently oversees Affordable Care Act plans for about 1.1 million people in 14 states, is one of the largest of the multistate insurers that hasn’t pulled back sharply from selling individual plans in the ACA. In April, it said it was “assessing our market footprint in 2018,” and on Tuesday the company said it would leave Ohio.
Currently, there are more than 30,000 people with Obamacare plans who are projected not to have an insurer under the program next year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. An Anthem exit would raise that number to 300,000 people in seven states.
“Planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to the shrinking individual market as well as continual changes in federal operations, rules and guidance,” Anthem said of its exit from Ohio. “The lack of certainty of funding for cost sharing reduction subsidies, the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage and, an increasing lack of overall predictability simply does not provide a sustainable path forward to provide affordable plan choices for consumers.”
Anthem’s Ohio exit will leave 20 counties in the state without an Affordable Care Act coverage option in 2018. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City said last month it will pull out of the exchange in Missouri, leaving 25 bare counties and about 18,500 people without an ACA coverage option. Humana Inc. said earlier this year it would pull out from all 11 states next year where it currently sells ACA plans. Aetna Inc. said in May it would do the same, also announcing plans to abandon the few remaining states where it had been selling ACA coverage. UnitedHealth Group Inc., the largest U.S. insurer, has already exited ACA exchanges in most of the states where it sold plans. Some small and regional insurers have pulled out of states or counties as well.
If Anthem decided to leave the exchanges nationwide, another 310 counties could be without ACA plans in Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada and Virginia in addition to Ohio, bringing the total number of bare counties to 355. Anthem did file a rate request in Virginia for next year but could still decide not to sell there.
The Rest…HERE
