HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA): “Nevada officials were stunned last month to learn consumers in most of the state might have no way to get health plans under the Affordable Care Act, because insurers were pulling back from the insurance marketplace…
As some insurers announce plans to pull back or exit insurance exchanges, and others seek major rate increases for next year, states are trying to hold together fraying individual insurance markets. State officials say they are caught between insurers nervous that they will face losses on their exchange business and uncertainty at the federal level as Republicans’ efforts to pass a major health overhaul bill drag on.
‘There is a general feeling that we’re on the front lines,’ says Julie Mix McPeak, Tennessee’s insurance commissioner.
She worked to convince BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee to offer plans next year in 16 counties that were at risk of lacking exchange coverage after Humana Inc. announced it would leave. The Tennessee insurer has requested a 21% rate increase, which it said was almost all tied to worries that federal officials won’t enforce the ACA’s mandate for insurance coverage and will stop making key payments that help reduce low-income enrollees’ health costs.”
-Anna Wilde Mathews, “States to Health Insurers: Please Come Back,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 14, 2017 10:42am