Aetna Will Abandon All Health Insurance Exchanges for 2018
Aetna will drop plans in DE and NE, completely removing itself from the 2018 ACA health insurance exchange marketplace.
Source: Thinkstock
By - Aetna is ending participation in the Delaware and Nebraska ACA health insurance exchanges, completing its retreat from the public marketplace. The company also made announcements earlier this year that it would be leaving the Virginia and Iowa ACA marketplace for 2018.
This recent announcement marks the end of Aetna’s presence in any of the nation’s health insurance exchanges.
However, reports indicate that Aetna may enter the Nevada health insurance exchange for 2018.
"Our individual Commercial products lost nearly $700 million between 2014 and 2016, and are projected to lose more than $200 million in 2017 despite a significant reduction in membership,” said Aetna spokesperson TJ Crawford in an email. “We will not offer on-or off-exchange individual plans in Delaware or Nebraska for 2018, and at this time have completely exited the exchanges."
Aetna cited the usual suspects for its withdrawal from the marketplace. This included large pools of high-cost beneficiaries, lower than expected enrollment numbers, and structural issues within the exchange itself.
Aetna posted large first-quarter losses, due primarily to costs associated with its blocked merger with Humana, and a decrease in premiums and federal funding from participation in the exchanges.
Aetna’s commitment to participating in the exchanges has long been questioned. After a January 2017 court decision blocked the Humana merger, the judge in his opinion concluded that Aetna’s withdrawal from the ACA marketplace was a reaction to the federal antitrust suit.
“In the public exchange context, the government contends that Aetna decided not to compete in the 17 complaint counties in 2017 in response to this litigation in an effort to evade judicial review of the merger.”
For Nebraska, the situation is particularly dire. Aetna’s departure will leave only one insurer in the state’s health insurance exchanges.
“Nebraskans will now only have one insurer on the exchange, forcing them into a monopoly situation,” said Adrian Smith (R-NE). “When consumers do not have choices, costs go up and quality suffers.”
BCBS of Nebraska and UnitedHealthcare dropped out of the Nebraska exchange in 2016.
The timing of the Delaware departure comes just weeks after the insurer announced it had been awarded a three-year contract with the state to provide employees and pensioners with health insurance plans.
