Anthem Says Senate Health Bill Will Bolster Individual Insurance Market -- Update
June 26 2017 - 1:24PM
Dow Jones News
By Anna Wilde Mathews
Anthem Inc. said it believes that the Senate Republicans' health
bill will bolster the individual insurance market, an endorsement
for the legislation as many other insurers have suggested it could
undermine the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act.
In a statement, Anthem said it believed the bill "will markedly
improve the stability of the individual market and moderate premium
increases," because it allots billions to help stabilize the
markets, eliminates a tax on health insurance plans and, Anthem
said, works on "aligning premium subsidies with premium costs."
Anthem also mentioned "the challenges the current bill proposes
to the Medicaid program knowing how important it is to achieve the
necessary funding and access to health-care services and supports
are for the individuals and families who rely on them to live
healthy meaningful lives in their communities."
The statement doesn't mention a feature of the bill that many
insurers said would strongly undermine the individual market -- it
dumps the mandate for people to have insurance, which insurers say
is important to getting young, healthy people into the market. Many
insurers say that the bill's other provisions, including the
stability funding, aren't strong enough to cancel out the impact of
getting rid of the ACA's coverage requirement.
Under pressure from the industry, Senate Republican leaders are
likely to introduce a replacement for the mandate, likely a
requirement that consumers maintain coverage without an extensive
break or face a lockout period before being able to purchase a new
plan.
The big insurer's views on the bill will likely be closely
watched because it is a major player both in Medicaid and in the
ACA marketplaces. The company has already announced plans to
withdraw from the exchanges next year in three states -- Indiana,
Wisconsin and Ohio -- moves that quickly became talking points for
both Republicans and Democrats in the battle over health
legislation. Anthem has said it is making its exchange decisions on
a state-by-state basis.
Anthem's withdrawals appear to leave counties in both Ohio and
Indiana poised to be without exchange insurers next year, some of
the approximately 47 counties at risk, according to the Kaiser
Family Foundation and state regulators.
In a sign of how fluid the insurance marketplace situation
remains, Washington's insurance regulator announced that two
insurers, Molina Healthcare Inc. and BridgeSpan, a unit of Cambia
Health Solutions, will offer exchange plans in Klickitat County,
the state's sole remaining county that had appeared at risk of
having no marketplace plans available in 2018.
"Every county needs coverage and today, we have that," said Mike
Kreidler, the state's insurance commissioner, in a statement.
The movement in Washington shows how state regulators, on the
front lines as some insurers have announced plans to pull out of
the exchanges, are working behind the scenes to fill bare spots on
their maps. Earlier, Washington's regulator announced that Premera
Blue Cross would remain in Grays Harbor, another county that had
been at risk of lacking an exchange insurer. Tennessee also was
able to get an insurer to offer plans in the Knoxville region after
Humana Inc. said it would leave.
Even as some insurers pull back, others are expanding their
exchange footprints -- notably Centene Corp. and Oscar Insurance
Corp., a high-profile startup.
Write to Anna Wilde Mathews at anna.mathews@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 26, 2017 13:09 ET (17:09 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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