Insurers exit ObamaCare in two Washington state counties

Two counties in Washington state will have no insurers participating in the ObamaCare exchange next year, according to state insurance filings.

Two insurers announced earlier this year that they will not participate in the ObamaCare market in 2018, leaving two rural counties without an insurer willing to sell a health plan on the exchange.

Both the state’s Democratic insurance commissioner and the CEO of the state exchange blamed the lack of insurers on uncertainty caused by the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress.

“While we are seeing a number of carriers returning this year, we also were dismayed by the role federal uncertainty played into the decision of others to discontinue offering products or scale back their existing service areas,” Pam MacEwan, CEO for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, said.

Commissioner Mike Kreidler said Republicans were “sabotaging” the state’s progress.

“Their actions, including failing to commit to fund the cost-sharing subsidies, not enforcing the individual mandate and continuing to push, in secret, the severely flawed American Health Care Act are eroding confidence health insurers have in the market here and across the nation,” Kreidler said.

Kreidler said he “will look for whatever options are available” to keep the market stable. Other state insurance commissioners are in the same position and are offering insurers new, previously unheard of, flexibilities to try to keep them in the market.

The cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies are payments to insurers that compensate them for reducing out-of-pocket costs for lower-income enrollees.

Congressional Republicans and President Trump have been pointing to insurers exiting the marketplace as a sign that ObamaCare is collapsing and needs to be repealed in order to “rescue” the “victims” of the health law. 

“ObamaCare is in a death spiral. ObamaCare is dead everybody knows it,” Trump said Wednesday at a speech in Ohio. 

But insurers are putting the blame almost squarely on the administration and Republicans.  

The announcement comes the same week that Anthem announced it was exiting the ObamaCare exchanges in Ohio. Anthem also cited uncertainty as a reason it’s exiting the exchanges in all of the state’s counties, particularly on the question of whether the Trump administration will continue the CSR payments.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are beginning to coalesce around a framework for their ObamaCare repeal legislation, with a goal to vote before the July 4 recess.

Senate Republicans are writing their own proposal but will use the House bill as a shell to get their bill through the upper chamber. There is no legislative text yet, but members are hoping to send a draft to the Congressional Budget Office in the coming days.