Individuals who are looking for insurance through the Affordable Care Act could face steep prices and few or no choices at all next year as insurance companies make known their early plans for 2018.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City said on Wednesday that it can no longer bear "unsustainable" losses from offering individual Affordable Care Act plans and that it will not offer or renew ACA plans in 2018. Blue KC serves 32 counties across Kansas and Missouri. The move will affect about 67,000 members, the company said in a release.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is asking regulators for a 23% price increase next year because it doesn’t expect crucial payments from the federal government to continue.
The insurer has lost more than $100 million in the ACA plan market through 2016, CEO Danette Wilson said in a release. "... This is unsustainable for our company. We have a responsibility to our members and the greater community to remain stable and secure, and the uncertain direction of this market is a barrier to our continued participation."
Blue KC is a nonprofit insurer with more than 1 million members. It ranks No. 10 on the Kansas City Business Journal's Top Area Private Companies List, with $2.65 billion in revenue for 2015.
Some of the biggest companies on the exchanges have yet to announce their coverage plans for next year. Those include Anthem Inc., which covers more than 1 million people through Affordable Care Act exchanges, offering Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurance in large states like New York, California and Ohio.
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