BCBSAZ is OUT of the Market in Phoenix

[Yagents]

I project:

1. Cigna comes back and doubles/triples their 19% rate increase.
2. BCBS AZ comes back into Maricopa and Pinal with 80% increases, because they are the civic hero, or the DOI twisted hard enough.

Who wants to buy my crystal ball? Right in between a double and a triple. I call it a douple.
Cigna looks like it's now going up 47% average, but is misleading as it's 50-52% on bronze/silver.

Read comments section here:
Arizona: Another shoe drops...Phoenix Health Plans drops off exchange | ACASignups.net

Oh, and they had 4500 people in their plan last year, with 127k on the exchange, and even more off the exchange, the ability to handle the volume comes into question.

It's in their SERFF filing found here
https://insurance.az.gov/consumers/...rmation-about-health-insurance-rate-increases

 

[jbage007]

I think they should go for broke and demand something between 92% and 147% on a take it or leave it basis.

What's to lose? They still have to refund any "excess profits," right?

This is what I've never understood about ACA pricing. Why undercut yourself? Other than market competition, of course. But now that it's clear (and always was really) that pricing too low leads to bankruptcy, when you're the only carrier available, price HIGH, and REFUND any difference.

If the Guv don't like it, then don't play. See how they like that!

 

[taterpeeler]

I think they should go for broke and demand something between 92% and 147% on a take it or leave it basis.

What's to lose? They still have to refund any "excess profits," right?

This is what I've never understood about ACA pricing. Why undercut yourself? Other than market competition, of course. But now that it's clear (and always was really) that pricing too low leads to bankruptcy, when you're the only carrier available, price HIGH, and REFUND any difference.

If the Guv don't like it, then don't play. See how they like that!

greatest comment ever on here..... call a spade a spade and all lives matter......

I agree 1000%%%%%%%%%

 

[Yagents]

Riddle me this:

What do you call a marketplace that goes from 12 carriers, to 10, to 8, and now down to 1 HMO carrier in each county??

A "Healthy" Market

"There is never going to be a set number of insurers. There will regularly be some dynamic moves in the marketplace and that's what makes it healthy," said Jennifer Sullivan, the director of Best Practices Institute with Enroll America.

Feds

 

[tonyisme]

Jennifer S sounds like our president. The ones professing the sunshine words have their wonderful rich group benefit plans in place already. Nothing for them to worry about.
They don't give a #!$@^&*& because their employers paying their $2,500 per month family premium.
It's like my sister in Ohio that I spoke with over the weekend she's voting for the Dems because she doesn't understand how Insurance works and her husband's employer is covering her...

 

[Yagents]

Be more alert for sarcasm in my posts.

 

[tonyisme]

Oops I corrected it

 

[Yagents]

Stelnik said that Blue Cross Blue Shield still does not expect to sell plans directly to Maricopa County consumers next year.

Cigna now has fewer than 5,000 marketplace customers in Arizona, so the insurer could face the prospect of a dramatic increase in sign-ups if Maricopa County's 126,000 marketplace customers need health-care coverage next year.

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Health-insurance woes in Pinal County eased by at least one 'Obamacare' choice

Health-insurance woes in Pinal County eased by at least one 'Obamacare&...
Pinal County residents enrolled in "Obamacare" will have an option next year in Blue Cross Blue Shield...



Nearly 10,000 Pinal County residents now enrolled in an "Obamacare" plan will have at least one option in 2017 after Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona officials confirmed the insurer will offer health plans there next year.
Pinal County faced the prospect of no Affordable Care Act plans in 2017 when Aetna last month said it would exit the marketplace in Arizona and 10 other states. The fast-growing county became the only known U.S. county without a marketplace option — as well as a national symbol of the Affordable Care Act's struggle to retain health-care insurers for the upcoming year.
Aetna's exit prompted Blue Cross Blue Shield to reconsider its earlier decision to drop Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage in Pinal County.
"We fully expected there would be alternative options," said Jeff Stelnik, Blue Cross Blue Shield's senior vice president of strategy, sales and marketing. "We were caught a little bit by surprise that Aetna would not enter Pinal County. We re-evaluated Pinal and are working to get final approval" from the Arizona Department of Insurance and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Stelnik said Blue Cross Blue Shield will seek approval for five Pinal County plans across a range of coverage tiers.
In June, the Phoenix-based insurer said that financial losses were too great — $185 million on individual marketplace plans in 2014 and 2015 — to continue selling directly to consumers in Maricopa and Pinal counties.

The insurer exodus has since continued. Maricopa County residents may have only one Affordable Care Act option next year after seven insurers announced plans to exit the marketplace in Arizona's largest county. Those insurer exits mean more than 126,000 Maricopa County residents who want to keep their Affordable Care Act plans in 2017 will have to choose the lone remaining insurer: Cigna.
Stelnik said that Blue Cross Blue Shield still does not expect to sell plans directly to Maricopa County consumers next year. The insurer will sell Affordable Care Act plans in 14 of 15 Arizona counties, and it expects to be the only marketplace option in 13 of those counties.

"Blue Cross is re-entering (Pinal) despite the fact we see significant challenges with the ACA (Affordable Care Act)," Stelnik said. "We decided to balance those financial challenges against the concern of Pinal County residents not having an option."
Cigna officials confirmed to The Arizona Republic that the insurer expects to offer marketplace plans in Maricopa County next year if state and federal regulators approve the insurer's offerings.
Cigna now has fewer than 5,000 marketplace customers in Arizona, so the insurer could face the prospect of a dramatic increase in sign-ups if Maricopa County's 126,000 marketplace customers need health-care coverage next year.
Aetna, Health Choice Insurance Co., Humana and UnitedHealth Group also won't offer marketplace plans next year in Arizona, and Health Net will scale back its offerings

 

[somarco]

rates will increase by 51 percent in 2017 in the county, but noted most of that will be offset by new subsidies available to Arizona residents next year.

Blue Cross to stay in Pinal County health exchange - trivalleycentral.com: Area News

 

[Ann H]

rates will increase by 51 percent in 2017 in the county, but noted most of that will be offset by new subsidies available to Arizona residents next year.

Blue Cross to stay in Pinal County health exchange - trivalleycentral.com: Area News

Yeah. So, taxpayer funding goes up 51%. What's your point?