Health insurance companies that used to be bullish on the Affordable Care Act now say they cannot handle the mounting medical claims of the people they once so desired as customers.
Patients buying subsidized individual coverage are sicker and more in need of medical care than insurers say they anticipated. Meanwhile, insurers are crying foul on third parties they say are paying premiums on behalf of patients to get larger reimbursement from private Obamacare coverage than they would from Medicaid and other government health benefit programs.
Some insurers say they've seen enough. Humana last week said it will scale back to “no more than 156” counties next year compared to around 1,350 this year and Aetna called off its Obamacare expansion plans for 2017. UnitedHealth Group already said it will only sell on exchanges in three states next year and Aetna also said it was reviewing whether to participate in the 15 states it currently sells individual coverage under the exchange on the health law.
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