No longer satisfied with revealing states in which it plans to stop offering insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) a few at a time, UnitedHealth Group has acknowledged it will drop out of all but a “handful” of states by the end of this year. Right now, it participates in exchanges in 34 states; the dawn of 2017 will see it offering health coverage in just 12, as now planned. The market has proven to be “smaller and riskier” than the company expected; it says it will lose roughly $650 million on the plans this year. As of the end of this year’s first quarter, UnitedHealth had about 795,000 customers through ACA exchanges. While the market will become less competitive once UnitedHealth exits, a study by Kaiser Health projects that the overall impact on the ACA system will be minimal.
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UnitedHealth Abdicating Almost All ACA Exchanges