In many places around the United States it’s getting a lot tougher for individuals who need health insurance to find coverage to fit their needs. Insurance carriers struggling to meet the federal government’s medical loss ratio rule are reducing the variety of plans they offer or, in many cases, leaving markets where they’ve operated for decades.
Most recently, the Indianapolis Business Journal reports that five companies are leaving the Indiana market for individual health insurance. These include Aetna and Cigna, the third and fourth largest health insurers in the country, and the Journal says state insurance officials fear more companies may soon be on their way out.
NAIFA members Ed Anderson of Missouri and Terry Frett of Wisconsin said in interviews for a recent NAIFA white paper that they have seen similar things happening in their states, with companies most significantly impacted by the MLR rule shuttering their local operations.
Less competition has resulted in fewer options for consumers. So at the end of the day, the biggest losers in this saga are people who need individual health coverage. In Indiana, they number approximately 200,000, including more than 20,000 people who were covered by the five companies leaving the state.