Wellmark, the top health insurer in Iowa, will no longer sell plans on the individual market after this year, leaving some parts of the state in danger of having no insurer on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges for 2018.
According to the Des Moines Register, the insurer lost $90 million over the last three years covering about 21,000 people in the state through the marketplace.
“We’re an Iowa company, we’re here for Iowans, we want to do the right thing for Iowans, but we can’t allow a small subset to put the broader group in jeopardy,” said Wellmark President John Forsyth.
The exit wouldn’t affect Wellmark’s members covered through an employer plan or the 77,000 who had pre-exchange individual policies. With their exit, much of the state’s exchange business would be left to Medica and Aetna, which has already promised to exit the ACA markets after this year.
“We are very concerned about this development,” said Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen.
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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.