Excerpt: "A growing number of people in Obamacare are finding out their
health insurance plans will disappear from the program next year, forcing
them to find new coverage even as options shrink and prices rise."
More than 1 million Obamacare customers will lose their insurance in 2017,
as more insurers flee the marketplace, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
(photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
More Than 1 Million in Obamacare to Lose Plans as Insurers Quit
By Zachary Tracer, Tatiana Darie and Katherine Doherty, Bloomberg
16 October 16
A growing number of people in Obamacare are finding out their health
insurance plans will disappear from the program next year, forcing them to
find new coverage even as options shrink and prices rise.
At least 1.4 million people in 32 states will lose the Obamacare plan they
have now, according to state officials contacted by Bloomberg. That's
largely caused by Aetna, UnitedHealth Group and some state or regional
insurers quitting the law's markets for individual coverage.
Sign-ups for Obamacare coverage begin next month. Fallout from the quitting
insurers has emerged as the latest threat to the law, which is also a major
focal point in the U.S. presidential election.
While it's not clear what all the consequences of the departing insurers
will be, interviews with regulators and insurance customers suggest that
plans will be fewer and more expensive, and may not include the same doctors
and hospitals.
It may also mean that instead of growing in 2017, Obamacare could shrink. As
of March 31, the law covered 11.1 million people; an Oct. 13 S&P Global
Ratings report predicted that enrollment next year will range from an 8
percent decline to a 4 percent gain.
Last year in Minnesota, Theresa Puffer, 61, used Obamacare to sign up for a
BlueCross BlueShield plan after leaving her job following a skin cancer
diagnosis. "I would have had a hard time finding any sort of coverage before
the ACA," Puffer said by phone.
Next year, Puffer's plan is disappearing from Obamacare -- making her one of
about 20,000 Minnesotans in the same situation. To make matters worse,
premiums for other plans in the state will rise by at least 50 percent,
though subsidies under the law can help cushion the blow.
"Trying to determine which would be the best plan for my situation is not
easy," Puffer said. Her dermatologist appears to be out of network in other
plans, she said. "I'm willing to pay a higher premium to see him, because
when you have cancer you want to stay with the same group of doctors," she
said. "I've spent so much time trying to figure out what my options are."
Bloomberg contacted officials in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and the
1.4 million-person estimate includes 32 states and only plans sold on the
individual "exchange" markets. In Texas, Arizona, Georgia and Missouri,
insurers have pulled out, but regulators couldn't or wouldn't say how many
people are affected. Three states didn't provide sufficient data. Eleven
states, plus D.C., said they weren't affected.
The U.S. agency that oversees Obamacare has said that some disruption is
normal, and that choosing a new plan can help people get the best deal.
"It's part of the normal business cycle for insurers to discontinue, change,
and replace plans from year to year," Benjamin Wakana, a spokesman for the
Department of Health and Human Services, said by e-mail on Oct. 5. "Such
changes don't prevent people from obtaining coverage. People can shop for
new coverage through a transparent market."
HHS said Thursday that it will contact people losing their coverage and
encourage them to sign up with new plans. The law requires all Americans to
have insurance or pay a fine.
Nationwide estimates of the number of people losing their current plans are
higher. For example, Charles Gaba, who tracks the law at ACASignups.net,
estimates that 2 million to 2.5 million people in the U.S. will lose their
current plans, compared with 2 million a year ago. Gaba's estimate is based
on insurance company membership data.
For the people losing plans, there are fewer and fewer choices. One estimate
by the Kaiser Family Foundation predicts that for at least 19 percent of the
people in Obamacare's individual market next year there will be only one
insurer to choose from.
In North Carolina, for example, a BlueCross BlueShield insurer will be the
only option in 95 of the state's 100 counties after Aetna and UnitedHealth
said this year that they would leave. That will leave 284,000 people looking
for a new plan, according to the state.
"Without any significant statutory and regulatory changes on the federal and
state levels, we may face the crisis again," said North Carolina Insurance
Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, a Democrat who's up for election this year.
"There needs to be a wholesale re-evalution by leaders in Washington."
In Tennessee, UnitedHealth and the state's BlueCross BlueShield plan are
pulling back, and about 117,000 people will lose the plans they have now.
Amanda Page Carpenter, a 34-year-old musician and athletic trainer in
Nashville, is among them. For 2015, Carpenter was careful to pick a
BlueCross BlueShield plan that covered specialists at Vanderbilt Health, to
treat nerve pain stemming from a 2013 accident. Her condition worsened
recently, she said, and she's worried about losing access to her doctor.
"I'm hopeful that he's going to be able to help me," she said of her current
physician. "I feel like now I have two and a half months to figure it out
before they shut me out."
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More than 1 million Obamacare customers will lose their insurance in 2017,
as more insurers flee the marketplace, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
(photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-insurers-quit-obamacare-20161014-s
tory.htmlhttp://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-insurers-quit-obamacare-2
0161014-story.html
More Than 1 Million in Obamacare to Lose Plans as Insurers Quit
By Zachary Tracer, Tatiana Darie and Katherine Doherty, Bloomberg
16 October 16
growing number of people in Obamacare are finding out their health
insurance plans will disappear from the program next year, forcing them to
find new coverage even as options shrink and prices rise.
At least 1.4 million people in 32 states will lose the Obamacare plan they
have now, according to state officials contacted by Bloomberg. That's
largely caused by Aetna, UnitedHealth Group and some state or regional
insurers quitting the law's markets for individual coverage.
Sign-ups for Obamacare coverage begin next month. Fallout from the quitting
insurers has emerged as the latest threat to the law, which is also a major
focal point in the U.S. presidential election.
While it's not clear what all the consequences of the departing insurers
will be, interviews with regulators and insurance customers suggest that
plans will be fewer and more expensive, and may not include the same doctors
and hospitals.
It may also mean that instead of growing in 2017, Obamacare could shrink. As
of March 31, the law covered 11.1 million people; an Oct. 13 S&P Global
Ratings report predicted that enrollment next year will range from an 8
percent decline to a 4 percent gain.
Last year in Minnesota, Theresa Puffer, 61, used Obamacare to sign up for a
BlueCross BlueShield plan after leaving her job following a skin cancer
diagnosis. "I would have had a hard time finding any sort of coverage before
the ACA," Puffer said by phone.
Next year, Puffer's plan is disappearing from Obamacare -- making her one of
about 20,000 Minnesotans in the same situation. To make matters worse,
premiums for other plans in the state will rise by at least 50 percent,
though subsidies under the law can help cushion the blow.
"Trying to determine which would be the best plan for my situation is not
easy," Puffer said. Her dermatologist appears to be out of network in other
plans, she said. "I'm willing to pay a higher premium to see him, because
when you have cancer you want to stay with the same group of doctors," she
said. "I've spent so much time trying to figure out what my options are."
Bloomberg contacted officials in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and the
1.4 million-person estimate includes 32 states and only plans sold on the
individual "exchange" markets. In Texas, Arizona, Georgia and Missouri,
insurers have pulled out, but regulators couldn't or wouldn't say how many
people are affected. Three states didn't provide sufficient data. Eleven
states, plus D.C., said they weren't affected.
The U.S. agency that oversees Obamacare has said that some disruption is
normal, and that choosing a new plan can help people get the best deal.
"It's part of the normal business cycle for insurers to discontinue, change,
and replace plans from year to year," Benjamin Wakana, a spokesman for the
Department of Health and Human Services, said by e-mail on Oct. 5. "Such
changes don't prevent people from obtaining coverage. People can shop for
new coverage through a transparent market."
HHS said Thursday that it will contact people losing their coverage and
encourage them to sign up with new plans. The law requires all Americans to
have insurance or pay a fine.
Nationwide estimates of the number of people losing their current plans are
higher. For example, Charles Gaba, who tracks the law at ACASignups.net,
estimates that 2 million to 2.5 million people in the U.S. will lose their
current plans, compared with 2 million a year ago. Gaba's estimate is based
on insurance company membership data.
For the people losing plans, there are fewer and fewer choices. One estimate
by the Kaiser Family Foundation predicts that for at least 19 percent of the
people in Obamacare's individual market next year there will be only one
insurer to choose from.
In North Carolina, for example, a BlueCross BlueShield insurer will be the
only option in 95 of the state's 100 counties after Aetna and UnitedHealth
said this year that they would leave. That will leave 284,000 people looking
for a new plan, according to the state.
"Without any significant statutory and regulatory changes on the federal and
state levels, we may face the crisis again," said North Carolina Insurance
Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, a Democrat who's up for election this year.
"There needs to be a wholesale re-evalution by leaders in Washington."
In Tennessee, UnitedHealth and the state's BlueCross BlueShield plan are
pulling back, and about 117,000 people will lose the plans they have now.
Amanda Page Carpenter, a 34-year-old musician and athletic trainer in
Nashville, is among them. For 2015, Carpenter was careful to pick a
BlueCross BlueShield plan that covered specialists at Vanderbilt Health, to
treat nerve pain stemming from a 2013 accident. Her condition worsened
recently, she said, and she's worried about losing access to her doctor.
"I'm hopeful that he's going to be able to help me," she said of her current
physician. "I feel like now I have two and a half months to figure it out
before they shut me out."
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