Florida Blue will stay with ACA

The future of the Affordable Care Act may be uncertain, but Florida’s largest health insurer, Florida Blue, announced thisweek that the company intends to stay in the individualmarket and sell coverage in all 67 counties next year.

Florida Blue executives said they expect the Trump Administration will continue to fund cost sharing reduction subsidies that help lowincome consumers pay for out-of-pocket expenses, such as co-payments and deductibles. But the insurer will raise premiums about 20 percenton average if those subsidies are discontinued, said Penny Shaffer, market president for South Florida.

“We’re filing rates assuming those will be in place for 2018,” Shaffer said, noting that Florida Blue covers about one million Floridians in the state’s individual market, which is where people buy health insurance when they don’t get it through a job or a government program.

An estimated 1.7 million Floridians signed up for an ACA plan in 2017, though the Trump administration this week released enrollment data showing that only about 1.4 million had paid their first month’s premium.

Among Floridians with effective coverage, about 1.3 million or 93 percent received financial aid to pay their monthly premiums. About one million or 75 percent of Floridians who were enrolled in an ACA plan also