Nebraska is one of the states where UnitedHealth Group no longer plans to sell individual health insurance policies as part of the government marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act.
Nebraska Department of Insurance Director Bruce Ramge said Wednesday that UnitedHealth had informed the department that it no longer plans to sell individual ACA Marketplace policies. However, he said the company will continue to sell small-group and large-group policies.
UnitedHealth, which has the second-largest share of Nebraska’s health insurance market after Blue Cross and Blue Shield, said Tuesday that it would pull out of the ACA market in all but a “handful of states” next year.
The publicly traded company said it lost $425 million last year on the ACA market and expects that loss to grow to $650 million this year.
A spokeswoman for the company confirmed that it will exit the Nebraska market but declined to comment further.
UnitedHealth, which sold ACA health plans in 34 states this year, did not say which states it plans to exit, but Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the insurer had notified insurance regulators in at least 22 states that it would be exiting their markets.
People who bought a UnitedHealth policy on the federal marketplace exchange this year will retain their coverage but will need to buy a new policy once open enrollment rolls around in November.
In Nebraska, other insurers that sold ACA-compliant individual health insurance policies this year through the federal marketplace exchange were Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, Coventry/Aetna and Medica. Ramge said none of those companies has given any indication that they intend to stop selling policies.
Date: April 21, 2016