American health insurance giant Anthem announced on Monday that it will exit the Obamacare exchange in Nevada and will stop offering plans in roughly half of Georgia’s counties next year.
Anthem announced their withdrawals after Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and two other Republican senators tanked Obamacare repeal and as Obamacare continues to implode.
The health insurer stated that it will offer “catastrophic plans” in which Americans under 30-years-old or low-income citizens can purchase outside of Nevada’s exchange.
Anthem said that the individual market remains “volatile.” Anthem suggested in a statement that a deteriorating marketplace and uncertainty regarding the future of Obamacare fueled their exit from the state exchange.
“Today, planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including cost sharing reduction subsidies and the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage,” Anthem said.
Anthem also revealed that they will only offer Obamacare plans in 85 of Georgia’s 159 counties and also stated that they will continue to offer plans in rural counties that otherwise would not have health insurance.
Earlier this month Anthem revealed that they will pull out of 16 of 19 regions in California in 2018.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported recently that next year 1,332 counties will only have one health insurer on the Obamacare exchanges. The CMS also reported that 40 counties currently do not have any health insurers on the Obamacare marketplaces.
The CMS estimated that average Obamacare marketplace insurance premiums increased by 21.6 percent between 2016 and 2017. The agency also suggested that the health insurer participation dropped by more than a third since its peak in 2015, two years after the Obamacare exchanges opened.
After Sen. John McCain voted to keep Obamacare last week, President Donald Trump suggested that he should let Obamacare implode to force Democrats and Republicans to compromise on repealing and replacing Obamacare.
President Donald Trump took a populist turn recently, threatening to remove health insurance companies’ subsidies and the congressional exemption from Obamacare.
If ObamaCare is hurting people, & it is, why shouldn't it hurt the insurance companies & why should Congress not be paying what public pays?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2017
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