Largest Ocare Provider In Mn Calls It Quits After One Yr

[Manonthestreet]

The top-selling insurer on the state’s MNsure exchange has pulled out of the online marketplace just two months before this year’s open enrollment period begins.


But the insurer’s CEO, Marcus Merz, said this week in a letter to the exchange’s leaders that “continuing to provide this coverage through MNsure is not sustainable.” Top selling insurer on MNsure won t be back this year Star Tribune

 

[Moonglow]

Yeah, under old insurance underwriting they could turn their backs on you...

 

[Rikurzhen]

All is going according to plan. Liberals need to destroy health care before they can communize it.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Your thread title is a lie.

PreferredOne is actually the smallest insurance company available to purchase plans from through the state's exchange.

 

[Manonthestreet]

They have the most Ocare policies....... try to read

 

[theDoctorisIn]

They have the most Ocare policies....... try to read

They have sold the most policies through the stages exchange so far. But they are the smallest of the 5 companies available.

Perhaps you should "try to read" the article you posted.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Thanks for agreeing they have the most Ocare policies which is what was posted.....

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Thanks for agreeing they have the most Ocare policies which is what was posted.....

But, as I pointed out before, not what the title of this thread says. It doesn't really matter though.

 

[Manonthestreet]

It says Largest Ocare Provider....thats what they are having the sold most Ocare policies......obviously it matters to you otherwise you wouldnt be engaged it such ridiculous game of semantics......

 

[Harry Dresden]

Yeah, under old insurance underwriting they could turn their backs on you...

oh i bet even under the new ins underwriting many will still see that old back....

 

[Moonglow]

Yeah, under old insurance underwriting they could turn their backs on you...

oh i bet even under the new ins underwriting many will still see that old back....

Well it is a period of no wars....

 

[idb]

It looks like a company, competing with other companies, has under-priced it's services.
That's the free-market I guess.

 

[Politico]

Yeah, under old insurance underwriting they could turn their backs on you...

Agreed they should back out. Under the new rules they can turn their backs on you for no reason.

 

[LoneLaugher]

Any provider of any service can turn their back on you for no reason. It's not good for business......but that's the free market for you.

Insurance companies have always been able to do this. No news here.

 

[boedicca]

Your thread title is a lie.

PreferredOne is actually the smallest insurance company available to purchase plans from through the state's exchange.

Learn to read. PreferredOne (rather ironic name, btw) is the largest ObamaCare insurer. They had 59% of the enrollment this year.

 

[finebead]

Nationally, more companies are participating, hot off the press:

"Tue Sep 23, 2014 2:08pm EDT

(Reuters) - The number of insurers offering individual health plans on the Obamacare exchanges will increase about 25 percent in 2015 and that should keep down prices, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday in a report.

More than 7 million people signed up for health insurance through the exchanges in 2014, which were created under President Barack Obama's national healthcare reform law and offer income-based subsidies.

Next year, there will be 63 additional issuers in the 44 states for which it has data, the agency said in a report. Some insurers left the market, it said.

Healthcare.gov, which sells insurance in 36 states, will have 248 issuers in 2015, an increase of 30 percent from 2014, it said.

"We're seeing it as evidence that these are attractive marketplaces, and just from our casual review of investor communications by the firms, these are being seen as growth opportunities," an HHS official said.

The nation's largest health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc, which offered only a few plans in 2014, submitted plans in more than two dozen states. Other large insurers have said they have either maintained or increased their presence on the exchanges for 2015. Aetna Inc, Humana Incand WellPoint Inc all offer more than a dozen plans."
U.S. government health agency sees 25 percent increase in Obamacare insurers Reuters

 

[saveliberty]

Keep down prices. You wrote that with a straight face? Very meaningful increases last year and more on the way for next year. Obamacare only changes some of the insured, no real gains and never controlled costs.

 

[finebead]

Keep down prices. You wrote that with a straight face? Very meaningful increases last year and more on the way for next year. Obamacare only changes some of the insured, no real gains and never controlled costs.

Healthcare costs have inflated at twice the rate of the overall economy for the last 30 years, generally speaking. The policies in the exchange are provide protections to the insured that were not available in the past, 1) the ins. company must insure you regardless of pre-existing conditions, 2) they cannot drop you if you get really sick, and 3) there is no longer a lifetime cap on benefits. Its going to cost some money to provide those benefits, but that is the holy grail from a consumers point of view, given that your only options under the old system were bankruptcy and death due to lack of care (if you got a serious illness like cancer or heart disease).

From a free market perspective, and just considering the coming year, with more participants in the exchange, that should lead to greater competition and limit price increases, unless you think a free market works another way.

 

[saveliberty]

It doesn't mean insurers can't charge based on risk, otherwise you totally defeat the insurance principles. It means the policies exist, but it still may be beyond the financial ability to pay. The government will eventually be forced to limit coverage through denial of procedures or care based on age most likely.

 

[Greenbeard]

Keep down prices. You wrote that with a straight face? Very meaningful increases last year and more on the way for next year. Obamacare only changes some of the insured, no real gains and never controlled costs.

Health care price growth is indisputably low. Price growth has been below 2% for a few years now, taking it on par with (or even below) overall economic growth--a historic rarity.

But it's not just prices. Medicare is becoming cheaper for the taxpayer:
Per Capita Medicare Spending is Actually Falling | SEPT. 3, 2014

Medicare spending isn’t just lower than experts predicted a few years ago. On a per-person basis, Medicare spending is actually falling.

If the pattern continues, as the Congressional Budget Office forecasts, it will be a rarity in the Medicare program’s history. Spending per Medicare patient has almost always grown more rapidly than the economy as a whole, often by a wide margin.

Health spending overall is slowing across the entire economy:
Affordable Care Act effect linked to lower medical cost estimates | September 5, 2014

WASHINGTON — Estimates of U.S. health-care spending for the next five years have been lowered by two federal agencies, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is getting much of the credit.

U.S. health spending in 2019 will be $4 trillion, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said this week, or $500 billion less than the agency projected in 2010 when President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul became law. That announcement followed by a week a report from the Congressional Budget Office lowering its five-year cost estimates.

The health law has been criticized by Republicans as costly and unsustainable. Now, four years after its arrival, the law's mandated program cuts and the medical practices it encourages — limiting unneeded procedures, and keeping people out of the hospital longer — are cited by economists as key ingredients in trimming the nation's medical bill. While the recession has had an influence on the cost slowdown, it doesn't explain it all, according to policy analysts and the CBO.

The cost of the ACA is dropping as the premiums to which subsidies are attached drop:
Early Analysis Finds a Drop in Obamacare Premiums Next Year | Sept. 5, 2014

In preliminary but encouraging news for consumers and taxpayers, insurance filings show that average premiums will decline slightly next year in 16 major cities for a benchmark Obamacare plan.

Employer-based premium growth is at a low:
Latest Good News in Health Spending: Employer Premiums | SEPT. 10, 2014

We’re in the midst of a rare slowdown in the growth of health spending. That slowdown just hit the employer health insurance market.

On Wednesday, the Kaiser Family Foundation published its annual survey on the health plans that employers are offering their workers. It’s large and comprehensive and generally regarded as the most reliable measure of what’s happening in the employer market.

The big finding is that the growth in health insurance premiums was only 3 percent between 2013 and 2014. That’s tied for the lowest rate of increase since Kaiser started measuring (this is the 16th year of the survey)

And as for some state-level trends in the new marketplaces, average increases are well below the double digit increases that were prevalent in the pre-ACA individual market.

• Good news for Oregonians! Health premiums to drop next year
• Health-care premiums fall in Arkansas
• New Mexico Health Exchange Insurance Premiums To Drop In Price
• Health exchange premiums will drop [in Mississippi] ("Premiums for Magnolia Health, which offers the only plans available for Northeast Mississippi counties except for Alcorn and Tishomingo, are expected to go down by about 25 percent")
• After rate hike rejected, Anthem to decrease premiums next year [in Connecticut]
• Premiums for Obamacare plans in Maine dip or remain flat for 2015
• Many Floridians Will Find A Cheaper ACA Plan In 2015
• Colorado regulators approve health insurance premiums 1 percent higher
• 2015 health insurance premiums on Obamacare exchanges won’t increase much [in Montana] ("Prices for 2015 health insurance policies sold on Montana’s federal online “marketplace” will increase only 1.35 percent")
• [Massachusetts] Connector health plans for 2015 will rise by 1.6%
• 90 health plans approved for 2015 Exchange [in Washington] ("The overall approved average rate change is just 1.9 percent")
• District of Columbia: 2015 premium increase only 2.3% (unweighted)
• Obamacare rate hikes in California to average 4% in 2015
• More Indiana options coming on insurance exchange ("Korty said a 5-percent average increase in exchange premiums is expected on Indiana policies")
• Maryland approves smaller rate hikes for CareFirst, lowers rates for 3 others
• New York's Obamacare rates will rise an average of 5.7% for its second year
• Utah Health Premiums to Increase 5.7 Percent

The doom-and-gloomerism gets sillier by the day.