BCBS insurer may return to ACA exchanges

A prominent Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer is aiming to return to the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges next year in several states, including New Mexico.

Health Care Service Corp. says it intends to sell coverage in several large markets, including Texas, as well as Oklahoma and Montana. But a spokeswoman also cautioned that the insurer won’t make any final decisions on exchange participation until the fall.

Companies still have a couple more months to sort out their 2018 coverage plans.

Options are growing thin for next year in many parts of the country on the exchanges, the only place where people can buy insurance with help from income-based tax credits. Several insurers have already said they are retreating from this market, some after losing more than $100 million.

The pullback has left some counties in Missouri, Ohio and Washington with no choices on the exchanges next year if another insurer does not step in.

Insurers are hesitant to return to the market in part because of uncertainty over the fate of some federal funding.

The government has been giving insurers money to help customers with modest incomes cover out-of-pocket expenses like co-payments and deductibles. But the future of those payments, which are separate from the income-based tax credits that help people buy coverage, is in political limbo. President Donald Trump has talked about potentially stopping the payments, and insurers want a guarantee that they will last through next year.