St. Louis-based health insurer Centene has announced it will offer coverage on the Affordable Care exchanges in three additional states for 2018 at a time when competitors are leaving or sharply raising premiums on the individual market.
According to the Associated Press, Centene will start offering coverage on the Missouri, Kansas and Nevada exchanges, along with expanding its presence in Florida, Ohio, Texas and Washington. Missouri, Ohio and Washington are currently in danger of having counties with no participating exchange insurers, and the ACA has no provision to address such a scenario.
Centene’s decision may have been motivated by a strong first quarter performance. At the end of the quarter, it had nearly 112,000 individual market customers, who paid $165 million in premiums but had medical expenses of only $125 million.
Read the full article at the link below:
John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.