Although originally claiming that it would look into expanding the availability of its federal health exchange plans next year in five more states—including Oklahoma—insurer Aetna announced Monday that it would drop its expansion plans and only sell Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans in four states in 2017.
This move leaves Oklahoma with only one insurer to purchase federal marketplace plans from next year: Blue Cross Blue Shield.
"Aetna's decision to alter its Marketplace participation does not change the fundamental fact that the Health Insurance Marketplace will continue to bring quality coverage to millions of Americans next year and every year after that," reassured HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan in an email.
Aetna follows similar federal exchange withdrawals by UnitedHealth and Humana; all three have cited the constant financial losses they sustained on their ACA plans as the main reason for their exits.
In Aetna’s case, the company claimed that it was inundated by higher-than-anticipated costs, particularly due to expensive specialty drugs. The insurer also argued that a second quarter pre-tax loss of $200 million from its individual insurance coverage business was reason enough to limit its exposure on the exchanges.
The competition among health insurers in the federal exchanges was supposed to help control insurance price increases, but the few insurers who still participate have announced their plans to increase their rates for 2017 by almost 10% or more.
Another state—Alaska—is facing the same dilemma, with Premera being the only remaining carrier in its health exchange.
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