2018 Looks Promising for Insurers that offer Market Place Health Plans
Over the years the ACA (Affordable Care Act) health insurance Marketplace has evolved into something very necessary for many healthcare providers. Some have withdrawn from the marketplace saying it’s caused profit losses and an increasing number of participants whom already are unhealthy. 2018 has new reports suggesting it was a better year for healthcare insurance companies.
It was reported by the CNBC that in the 2nd quarter of 2017 the top six health insurers in the nation combined had reported $6 billion in adjusted profits during the second quarter. This is about 29% up from the previous years same quarter. Some profit was due to some of the companies scaling back participation in the Health care Marketplace. Some companies are finding success in providing health insurance plans in the Marketplace.
Anthem health insurance company reported last year in October that 2018 was looking towards being slightly profitable which may allow them to possibly return to offering Marketplace plans in 2019 for some specific regions. There are some companies like CaresSource and Centene which expand into the marketplace and other companies like UnitedHealth are both expecting good years. Molina and Cigna are as well. Coverage in 2018 are being offered by Cigna under ACA for the public exchanges in six different states.
Outlook for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) wasn’t rosy last year. Open enrollment participation for 2018 or which insurers would provide health plans in the Marketplace was unknown since millions of dollars in advertisement were pulled for open enrollment as well as stopping payments for cost sharing reduction to insurers. 8.7 million Americans purchased health insurance plans showing numbers that stronger than expected. This was unexpected since the open enrollment period for the year was cut in half.
This has demonstrated that individuals are still purchasing plans from the ACA marketplace exchanges while facing increasing premiums. Particularly the low-income individuals who benefit form using Premium Tax Credits which offset the premium increases. The health insurance market place is expected to stabilize since the insurers can raise premiums while not hurting the participation in the market place. This has allowed health insurance companies that decided to stay in the marketplace to turn profits and expect to see growth in 2018.