With the new Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies are having financial troubles because too numerous new policy holders need medical care. Just because it was the best option last year does not mean it is necessarily the best option for you this coming year.
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Aetna said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday that its worsening finances – not an attempt to retaliate because of the Justice Department lawsuit – caused it to pull out of the Obamacare markets. Now, Aetna has announced its decision for 2017 to withdraw from 70 percent of the exchange markets in which it sold policies in 2016. The pullouts by UnitedHealthcare and Aetna mean there will be only one carrier in the state in 2017 – Blue Cross and Blue Shield of SC.
Aetna will abandon Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges next year in Texas and 10 other states amid financial concerns. The average rate increase is almost 18 percent, according to Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation. That development further concentrates the pool of insurance companies that customers shopping on state or federal exchanges have to choose from. But two of them will end after this year, and insurers say the remaining risk adjustment program has many flaws. Its move follows downsizings by UnitedHealthcare, which will operate in only three states in 2017, and Humana, which is withdrawing from almost 1,200 counties in eight states.
They can be less attractive to insurers because there are fewer customers over which an insurer can spread costs, and hospitals and other health care providers can build dominating market positions, making them formidable negotiating foes over rates.
But some Democrats are crying foul, saying the timing of Aetna’s pullback seems fishy, after the company appeared bullish about their Obamacare investment earlier this year.
The exchanges have helped millions of people gain health coverage, most with help from income-based tax credits.
The nation’s third-largest insurer has not released specifics on how many clients in Texas use the exchange. The insurer said then it would cancel its exchange expansion plans and reconsider its existing presence because of the financial performance.
Aetna has said it has been overwhelmed with higher than expected costs, particularly from expensive specialty drugs. The company move would take it out of 546 counties in 11 states, leaving it active in 242 counties in four states: Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska and Virginia.
Evidence has come to light that casts doubt on the right-wing talking point that Aetna insurance pulled out of the Obamacare healthcare marketplace because it was losing money.
Aetna cited the large losses that the company has incurred from the exchange business – $200 million in the second quarter alone – when explaining its decision to roll back its business.
“A healthy marketplace would have numerous competitors”.
Aetna’s CEO says the company may consider returning to the exchanges if improvements are made to the program.
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Aetna, one of the United States’ biggest health insurers, Monday said that it will stop offering health plans through Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges in 11 out of the 15 states in which it now participates in the insurance marketplace.
