United Health Care - Opting Out of Most Exchanges!

[AllenChicago]

Fact or speculation?

It depends on one's viewing perspective. From the Illinois view, Individual family and Temporary health plan sales have been terminated and you can't get through to either Customer Care or Broker Support. It's a FACT here.

 

[Yagents]

I thought FACT was their association name?

Humor used in this post

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Email from Goldenrule, looks like they had a 13' rush:
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December 2013 was a record-breaking month for underwritten UnitedHealthOneSM health applications. Thousands of brokers and customers alike responded to our message of securing an underwritten plan prior to 2014. Thank you!
Of course, this now means a record number of applications are trying to make their way through underwriting. We have extended office hours and our employees are working overtime to process these applications as quickly as possible.
All applications received as of Dec. 31, 2013 are currently with underwriting for review. It is our goal to have 90% of underwritten applications completed with an underwriting decision by the end of this month.
We understand your concerns. Processing these applications is our number one priority, and we are working as fast as possible. Plan statuses on E-Store are behind, but as applications are processed those statuses will be updated. E-Store really is the fastest and best way to know your client's application status, so please check it daily.
We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter. Again, we thank you for your business and trusting your clients with an underwritten UnitedHealthOneSM plan.

 

[dgoldenz]

Someone at UHC told me they had 18,000 apps last month, a normal month is 2-3,000.

 

[hamben]

UHC is taking advantage of obamacare and very few understand how they are doing it. Some states allow private companies to administer the SCHIP plans. UHC is able to get the States to pay them to insure the health kids that obamcare is forcing into Medicaid. By not participating in the exchanges they do not have the exposer to the unhealthy. Here is a link to there plan in iowa..
Iowa hawk-i CHIP

 

[AllenChicago]

I think UHC is testing the waters before wading in too far, as well as sending a message to HHS about how the exchanges are designed. But nonetheless, I don't doubt that they would have limited participation.

I heard from a senior rep at one large carrier that they expect to be minimally involved - like one plan only so that they can sell outside the exchange.

April 8, 2016

United Healthcare tested the ObamaCare IFP waters, found it they were shark-infested, and now are pulling out...state-by-state.

Story: UnitedHealth starts pulling out of Obamacare, but will anybody notice--or care? - LA Times

I wonder how UHC was able to leave 2 state marketplaces in the middle of the year? A lot of them would do so, if HHS rules allowed them to.

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***From the "You Gotta Be Shittin Me!" category...

Due to extreme financial losses, United Healthcare admitted that it was a mistake for them to enter the ObamaCare Individual health market. Now, as mentioned above, UHC is starting it's state-by-state withdrawal.

Meanwhile, Bob Sheehy, one of UHC's former executives, has raised $80 million from (gullible) investors to start his own little health insurance company, and enter the ObamaCare IFP market. It will be called "Bright Health" and utilize the Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO) concept.

Story: http://www.benefitspro.com/2016/04/07/former-unitedhealth-ceo-launches-health-startup

There must have been some kind of hallucinogen in the United Healthcare executive watercooler 2 years ago.

 

[somarco]

I'll take Shittin Me for $500 Alex ...........

 

[scagnt83]

From that LA times article:

What's interesting about United's announcements in Arkansas and Georgia is that they come as new evidence arrives that the Affordable Care Act is doing its job. The Gallup organization reported Thursday that the U.S. uninsured rate had fallen to 11% in the first quarter of 2016, the lowest in eight years and nearly a full percentage point from the rate three months earlier. As the Obamacare train continues chuffing along, UnitedHealth will be left at the station.

Talk about being ignorant on a subject

 

[Tkruger]

LA times article = Democrap Libtards...

 

[Ann H]

One of my favorite ignorant quotes from the article:

United's experience in the individual health insurance market may eventually reign as a business school case study in how not to do things. According to a joint analysis by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute, the company entered some of the least populous exchange markets and failed to establish itself among the lowest-priced choices in most of them.

"United seems to be more aggressively participating in less populous and less-competitive markets," the report says. The results don't suggest that this was a formula for building a strong presence in the market. They also suggest that United's departure won't send rates higher in those markets.​

Maybe in this "business school for how not to do thing" they should teach that an insurer shouldn't want to "establish itself among the lowest-priced choices" as the article promoted.

Here in AZ, that's exactly what UHC did - they had great prices on products that they presented as a PPO (but looked more like an HMO), and clients without an agent bought it up. A look under the hood showed that it wasn't going to be the product that those folks thought it was.

Although their presence in GA and AK wasn't big, it was very big in some other states.

 

[somarco]

RWJF and Urban not exactly shining examples of conservative brain trusts.

Obamacrap was not designed in a business school but in the backroom's of Congress ........ which explains a lot.