UnitedHealth is the nation’s largest insurer, and it is operating on ACA exchanges in 34 states, including in Iowa and IL.
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The company said it lost an additional $125 million on its individual ACA plans, bringing its total losses in 2015 and 2016 to $1 billion. The question now is whether the Obama administration will do anything in an attempt to make the companies stay.
“We have full confidence, based on data, that the Marketplaces will continue to thrive for years ahead”, Wakana said in a statement.
The United Health spokesman declined to elaborate on other states UnitedHealth would exit. “The marketplace should be judged by the choices it offers consumers, not the decisions of any one issuer”.
The move comes amid fears of huge financial losses for the health insurer, UnitedHealth’s CEO announced today that the company expects its losses from health insurance exchanges to top $1 billion dollars later this year.
UnitedHealth’s president and chief financial officer David Wichmann added that the company served 795,000 people on public exchanges as of the end of the first quarter.
The government said in February that more than 12 million people had signed up for Obamacare-related insurance through HealthCare.gov or a state-based exchange as of January 31. Right now, we don’t know which states will still have UnitedHealth as an option next year.
Analysts expect other insurers to also trim their exchange participation in 2017, especially if they continue to struggle with high costs.
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that if UnitedHealth exited from the 1,855 counties where it competes, 29 percent would see the number of exchange insurers drop from two to one.
“The significance of United leaving the exchange market would vary substantially by state and could have a significant effect in some markets”. An average health plan used as a benchmark would be about 1 percent more expensive if United had not participated in 2016. That means that the industry could be about to go from five big players to only three. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
Health insurers have faced several challenges in building their exchange business.
These insurers have been expressing their concerns over Obamacare’s pricing, as well as the likelihood that those companies who are losing substantial amounts of revenue may push for substantial premium increases, The Hill reported.
“We continue to remain an advocate for more stable and sustainable approaches to serving this market”, he said.
But, she said, “On its own, it is not that troubling”.
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One of the continuing issues with ObamaCare is that insurance companies are taking on older and or less-healthy Americans while not getting enough younger, healthier Americans to help offset the cost via premiums.
