Washington state is facing a reduction of health insurers selling plans on the Obamacare exchange next year, leaving residents in two counties without any options for coverage.
Fewer insurers will participate in the state’s 2018 exchange, called Washington HealthPlanFinder, leaving 3,346 residents in Grays Harbor and Klickitat counties without a subsidized health insurance option, according to the Washington commissioner’s office.
Mike Kreidler, health insurance commissioner for Washington, said in a statement released Thursday that he would be reaching out to the companies that aren’t participating in the exchange to see if they will reconsider their decision.
“After that, I will look for whatever options are available at the state level to protect the stability of our health insurance market,” he said.
Residents have the option of enrolling through the state’s high-risk pool but would not receive subsidies.
The filing deadline in Washington state for health insurance companies to submit their rate requests was Wednesday, and they will be publicly posted 10 days after the deadline. The requests, submitted by six insurers, must be approved by the state department of insurance and are not final.
Pam MacEwan, CEO for the exchange in the state, said the agency was disappointed with the proposals that were submitted.
“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,” she said.
The uncertainty, she added, was over whether the Trump administration would continue paying billions of dollars to insurers, called cost-sharing reduction subsidies, which allow them to reduce out-of-pocket costs to customers. Without those payments, insurers have said that they would seek to exit the exchanges as soon as they can or increase their premium rates by about 20 percent.
MacEwan also blamed the Trump administration for lack of clarity on enforcing the individual mandate, which obligates people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
The exchange in Washington was otherwise seen as stabilizing, she said.
The Obamacare-created exchanges allow people to sign up for coverage that is paid for partly by the federal government. Most people who sign up would not feel the effects of premium hikes because federal subsidies would increase as well, but premium increases could affect anyone who makes more than $48,240 for an individual and $98,400 for a family of four.
Pennsylvania recently issued similar accusations against the Trump administration for introducing uncertainty into the insurance marketplace. Without that, the commissioner said, rate increase requests are expected to be in the single digits.
* Update: A previous version stated that Kaiser Permanente Washington would not be offering plans in the state, based on a news release from the commissioner’s office. The company said it will continue to sell plans on and off exchange, and that it currently does not offer plans in Grays Harbor and Klickitat counties. Kaiser will no longer offer its preferred provider option plan off exchange, but will continue to offer its HMO plans.
