The Iowa Insurance Division wants to reallocate hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to help insurance companies pay for high-cost claims. The state’s largest insurer, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, said it would return to Iowa’s individual marketplace in 2018 if the proposal is approved. If not, officials say the exchange runs the risk of total collapse.
The application also outlines a plan to restructure federal tax credits in an effort to attract young and healthy consumers into the marketplace. The credits would be dependent on age and income, not the cost of the plan, as is the case under the ACA. Without the measures outlined in their proposal, officials say up to 20,000 Iowans may lose insurance in 2018.
“In Iowa, we face an immediate collapsing market. … Iowans deserve a healthcare system that better serves their needs,” Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) wrote in the proposal.
Iowa has a state-partnership marketplace, in which the state conducts plan management while HHS performs the remaining marketplace functions.
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