States step in to avoid an Obamacare disaster
Insurers work hard to keep system afloat
The Washington Post
As President Donald Trump urged politicians to “let Obamacare implode,” suggesting that the law will unravel on its own and leave people across the country with no health-insurance options, states were finding their own ways to fill in the gaps in coverage for next year.
Ohio’s insurance commissioner announced July 31 that by working together with five companies, all but one of its counties would have insurance options next year on the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. Twenty Ohio counties had been at risk of being bare in 2018, with no insurers selling plans on the exchanges where people can buy health coverage with the aid of federal subsidies. That void was created in June when the major insurer, Anthem, announced that it would pull out of the state.
“Ohio has long had a strong insurance system, and once again our insurers stepped up at an important time for thousands of Ohioans, taking unprecedented action to provide access to health insurance for Ohioans who otherwise were without options,” insurance director Jillian Froment said in a statement.
A single Ohio county, Paulding County, still has no insurer expected to offer plans on the exchange. Ms. Froment said that regulators are searching for coverage options for that county.
State insurance commissioners have been working with companies to plug potential gaps over the past few months. After quite a bit of suspense over whether Iowa would have any insurers offering marketplace plans next year, the Midwestern insurer Medica stepped in to offer plans statewide. Missouri, once at risk of seen multiple counties lose their insurance options, was able to work with the insurer Centene to fill in bare counties.
“State insurance regulators have a fair amount of latitude to get plans to participate,” said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health, a consulting firm. “There is a backand-forth that provides some level of insulation from the craziness of the federal legislative process and the federal administrative process. The states really have an interest in providingcontinuity.”
Theannouncement leaves a dwindling number of U.S. counties — 19, to date — at risk of having no insurers selling exchange plans. There are 12,076 people enrolled in those counties who could potentially have no choices next year, according to the KaiserFamily Foundation.
Having a single insurer is far from the rich consumer choice that many envisioned, including thenPresident Barack Obama, who said people should “shop around in the new marketplace.” And all insurers are closely watching what the White House will do about billions of dollars in federal payments that help cushion lower-income Americans from their out-of-pocket health-care costs.