40% of CareFirst Customers in VA, MD, D.C. Lose Insurance Due to Obamacare

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield revealed to the Washington Examiner that 76,000 of its customers will lose their health plans with the advent of ObamaCare. The people affected come from Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. and comprise over 40% of the clients covered by CareFirst in those areas. 

Barack Obama had promised that those with existing plans would not be forced to abandon their plans because of Obamacare, but his promise didn’t wash. Pre-existing plans were expected to be “grandfathered in,” but Carefirst told the Washington Examiner:

Of the 177,000 individuals under age 65 who are covered by CareFirst, about 76,000 of them are in a ‘non-grandfathered’ plan, a plan that will not comply with the guidelines imposed by the Affordable Care Act at their time of renewal this year or next. These individuals in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and portions of Northern Virginia will be required by the health law to purchase a new ACA-class compliant health plan. This phenomenon is not unique to CareFirst and its members, but rather a result of industry-wide changes in accordance with new ACA health plan standards.

Maryland and Virginia’s CareFirst customers losing their plans have a choice to either obtain a new plan via the Obamacare exchanges or shop from the free market; D.C. customers will have to buy their insurance on the exchange.