Jim Wadleigh, CEO of Connecticut's health insurance exchange Access Health CT, warned his agency's board of directors that the only two insurers still selling plans on their marketplace could leave next year, according to the Hartford Courant.
ConnectiCare and Anthem have already requested rate increases of 17.5 and 33.8 percent respectively for next year, and that is not taking into account President Donald Trump's threats to end cost-sharing reduction subsidies. If the cost-sharing reductions are not funded, Mr. Wadleigh warned the payers may ask for an additional 20 percent increase.
About half of the 98,000 individuals who purchase insurance on Connecticut's exchanges qualify for cost-sharing subsidies, and Mr. Wadleigh was careful to emphasize that everyone who purchased insurance from the exchange will continue to have coverage for the rest of 2017.
If Anthem and ConnectiCare do leave the exchange in 2018, Mr. Wadleigh said his organization will begin the process of transitioning customers to off-exchange plans.
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