Major Iowa Insurer Joins Obamacare Health Insurance Exchange
By - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act under the Obama administration, which is colloquially known as Obamacare, set up a health insurance exchange platform that enables consumers to pick and choose which type of healthcare coverage is right for them.
The latest news regarding the health insurance exchange stems from Iowa where a major medical insurer called Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield has announced it will take part in Obamacare’s health insurance marketplace starting next year.
According to The Des Moines Register, Wellmark will be selling policies in one year via the health insurance exchange that will quality for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. This insurance marketplace was first launched about two years ago, but the company initially decided not to pursue this type of coverage for its members.
Three other health insurers in Iowa are planning on selling these coverage plans next year via the health insurance exchange throughout the state. Wellmark has decided to begin selling plans that will begin in 2017 due to the online system of purchase becoming more trustworthy and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the legal precedence of these federal subsidies.
We’ve said from day one we’d be there, and we meant it,” Wellmark Chairman John Forsyth told the news source in an interview. “[At first,] We were convinced it was going to be an awful experience [for consumers].”
“The front end of the website, which consumers see, has gotten much better since then,” Forsyth continued. “But there still are serious problems in the back end of the site, which insurers must use to fulfill orders. I’m surprised it took as long as it did to fix it.”
During the first few months of service, the health insurance exchange website set up by the Obama administration regularly crashed or froze when consumers attempted to purchase coverage. This led to significant frustration among insurance agents and patients themselves.
The Wellmark representative was confident, however, that the online health insurance exchange will be working properly next year when the policies go on sale. This is a major insurer throughout the state of Iowa, as it holds as much as 75 percent of all individual policies sold in the state.
Some criticism has stemmed from the company not participating in the health insurance exchange once it was first established. The lack of prior participation of Wellmark in the health insurance exchange could have led many Iowans to decline to consider their options via the marketplace even though they may have qualified for subsidies.
Even though some consumers did leave the company to purchase other health insurance plans, Wellmark is still selling more individual plans than before the Affordable Care Act was initially passed.
There has been low enrollment in the health insurance exchange among people from Iowa, according to the Little Village publication.
“Though Iowa’s rate of uninsured residents (6.2 percent according to the U.S. Census Bureau) is relatively low compared to other states, the Hawkeye state has seen considerably low enrollment in the health insurance exchange program, which was created in 2013 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA),” the publication stated. “Iowa’s low enrollment in the health insurance marketplace, the second-lowest in the country after Hawaii, is often attributed to Wellmark — the state’s largest health insurance provider — declining to participate.”
It is hoped this lack of participation will change because of Wellmark’s decision to take part in the marketplace.
