Aetna, Anthem says business on the exchange is as expected

If United Health – the nation’s largest and most diversified health insurer – is bothered by its exchange business and struggling to make profits, then it raises questions about the viability of the online exchange business which was created to provide subsidized health insurance coverage. The insurer said Friday it still expects 2015 operating earnings of $7.45 to $7.55 per share.

The losses happened even after UnitedHealth chose to sit out the first year under the Affordable Care Act, and in Hemsley’s words, entered the market last year “in a measured fashion”.

Neither payer indicated dropping plans on the ACA exchanges.

Since the warning emerged, much attention has focused upon the challenges posed by an ever fluctuating healthcare landscape and the flaws of the Affordable Care Act. “And that’s something that still needs to be worked out”.

The not-for-profit insurer Kaiser Permanente also said late Thursday that it remained “strongly committed” to participating in the exchanges. It has about 4,200 local workers. For instance, he said, around a quarter of Molina’s exchange enrollees came in outside the annual open-enrollment period, but this group didn’t appear to be running up a notably higher health-costs tab than others. He said the company is also suspending marketing of its exchange plans and is reducing or eliminating commissions to brokers for those plans in most markets.

“Collectively, these actions should temper any growth [in exchange customers] in 2016”, he told investors on a conference call Thursday morning.

The company’s announcement comes after rival companies Aetna Inc. and Anthem Inc. said in October they were also experiencing low enrollment in their individual plans, although they stopped short of announcing they were considering quitting.

UnitedHealth is a small player on the MA insurance exchange.

“More Americans than ever have health insurance, but these findings show that too many people with all types of coverage aren’t getting care because of high costs”, Commonwealth Fund President Dr. David Blumenthal said in a statement.

Aetna and Anthem have, however, said that they will be patient for another year or two before deciding on the future course of action.

“Prescriptions, premiums are major issues for me”, she said in 2013.

Shares of Aetna Inc. climbed 4 percent, or $4.06 to $104.01 in midday trading Friday, while Anthem Inc. stock was up more than 2 percent, or $2.83, to $130.67.

Shares of all three tumbled Thursday after UnitedHealth’s announcement. “At the end of the day, you have to have people willing to sell insurance”.

The Connector is dominated by local, nonprofit insurers, including Neighborhood Health Plan, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and Tufts Health Plan. One reason insurers have faced losses is because those who have bought insurance during the exchanges’ infancies tend to be sicker and thus more expensive.

But Obama administration officials argued that other insurers are happy in the market. “It’s not as strong as had been originally expected”. And the average number of insurers per state has risen to 10 for 2016, up from eight in 2014, Obamacare’s inaugural year.

Ben Wakana, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the statements were an indication that the overall marketplace has strength going forward. Those lower-premium plans that Obama described as worthless because they didn’t pay out anything were no worse than the plans that replaced them and don’t pay out anything until a consumer has racked up $2,000 or more in medical bills.