Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote a letter to UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley asking the insurer to reconsider departing from the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges, according to the Hartford Courant.
Nearly a month ago, UnitedHealth said it might exit the marketplace as early as 2017 due to a $650 million expected loss from its 55,000 customers served through the exchanges. "We cannot sustain these losses," said Mr. Hemsley said in a statement, according to the report.
But Sen. Blumenthal called the potential decision "shortsighted." "This insurer has ... an ethical duty to stay with the marketplace while it stabilizes and achieves even more enrollees in the very near future," Sen. Blumenthal wrote in the letter.
In the letter, Sen. Blumenthal cited other insurers — such as Anthem — that remain optimistic about the exchanges and have no plans to drop out. He also said the difficulties UnitedHealth faces — including customers enrolling for a policy to cover a planned expense and then dropping out — can be conquered over time, according to the report.
UnitedHealthcare spokeswoman Maria Gordon Shydlo spoke out about the issue in an email. "United Healthcare has a longstanding public commitment to helping Americans gain access to quality care on a sustainable basis," Ms. Shydlo said. "We will continue to offer our exchange plans in 2016 and will begin evaluating our plans for 2017 on a market-by-market basis in early 2016."