"More health insurers likely to get it on Obamacare action"

[applegrove]

Last edited Tue May 27, 2014, 10:47 PM - Edit history (1)

More health insurers likely to get it on Obamacare action

by Joan McCarter at the Daily Kos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/27/1302324/-More-health-insurers-likely-to-get-in-on-Obamacare-action

"SNIP....................


“Insurers continue to see this as a good business opportunity,” said Larry Levitt, a health policy expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “They see it as an attractive market, with enrollment expected to ramp up in the second year.” Eight million people have signed up for coverage in 2014, and estimates put next year’s enrollment around 13 million.

In New Hampshire, for example, where Anthem Blue Cross is the only insurer offering individual coverage on the state exchange, two other plans, both from Massachusetts, say they intend to offer policies next year. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a nonprofit insurer with 1.2 million members, said it expected to participate in the exchanges in both New Hampshire and Maine for the first time and to add Connecticut to the mix in 2016.

UnitedHealth Group and Cigna, which were notable in their caution about the exchanges last year, are expected to enter more markets this year. In Washington State, United is among four new insurers that have told state regulators they are interested in offering plans in 2015.

Add to those New York-based Assurant, which offers plans outside of the exchanges in 41 states and is looking to get on the exchanges in at least some of them "to serve more consumers and provide additional choice for customers purchasing on and off the exchange." Smaller insurers, like Harvard Pilgrim in New Hampshire, are planning to join in as are health cooperatives in a number of states. At the same time, two large companies—Wellpoint and Aetna—say they are likely to stay on the exchanges they are currently participating in.



.....................SNIP"

[TexasTowelie]

1. The health insurers have caught on--

participate or perish.

[Travis_0004]

2. I wonder if a lot intenally waited a year to offer coverage

They may have assumed that the sick would sign up as soon as it was available. By waiting 1 year, the people signing up may be healthier on average. If the sick people have had coverage for a year, they may be less likely to switch.

[IronLionZion]

5. Of course they did

For the sick as well as to see what happens. They are in the business of risk. And this was a lot of risk and uncertainty for them as they basically had to guess their initial pricing without much data to go on.


I'm pleased to see more competition, and more nonprofits entering the market.

[Lee-Lee]

3. I sure hope so. Here in NC our choice is Blue Cross Blue Shield or nothing

A monopoly is evil, and with a company like BCBS that I hate it is even worse.

[woo me with science]

4. How incredibly sad and sick and infuriating

that what should be universal health care for human beings has been perverted into "an attractive market" and profit-making "action" for vultures who make billions from doing nothing except inserting themselves between Americans and their doctors.

"They see it as an attractive market."

This is the language we live with now, that creates our reality and our expectations. We marinate in corporate messaging and corporate propaganda.

[IronLionZion]

6. Where would single payer be inserted?

[Armstead]

7. between patient and doctor -- for the good of the patient instead of profit