Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Other Insurers Flee ACA Markets, Centene Will Be Diving In
The New York Times: Trump Says Market Is Failing, But One Insurer Bets Big On Obamacare
The Obamacare insurance markets aren’t as shaky as President Trump seems to believe. On Tuesday, the insurer Centene announced plans to expand aggressively into the state marketplaces established under the Affordable Care Act. Centene said it intended to sell individual policies for the first time in Nevada, Missouri and Kansas, and to grow its presence in six other states, including Ohio and Florida. (Sanger-Katz and Abelson, 6/13)
The Associated Press: Key Insurer Centene Plans To Expand Health Exchange Presence
This growth spurt could fill some big holes that have developed in the exchanges, the only place where people can buy individual coverage with help from an income-based tax credit. Currently, 25 counties in Missouri, 20 in Ohio and another two in Washington have no insurers lined up to sell coverage on the exchange in 2018. (Murphy, 6/13)
The Wall Street Journal: Centene To Expand Affordable Care Act Marketplace Offerings
Mr. Neidorff said that Centene’s expansion reflects that “we do very well in the exchanges; it’s been a good business segment for us.” Despite the lack of clarity around the future of the ACA, as Republicans in Congress work to pass a health-care bill, Mr. Neidorff said Centene is making its calls based on the information it has now, rather than the possible changes to come. “We think we have the agility to deal with the various regulatory environments,” he said. “We tend to make decisions around the facts that are known at that point in time.” (Wilde Mathews, 6/13)
The Hill: ObamaCare Insurer Expands To Three New States
It's a notable move because other insurers have announced they may not participate in 2018, citing uncertainty in the marketplaces that they say has been ginned up by the Trump administration. (Hellmann, 6/13)
Bloomberg: Bucking Trend, Insurer Centene Expands Obamacare Coverage
Centene is quitting the ACA market in Massachusetts, where it had relatively low enrollment. (Tracer, 6/13)
KCUR: As Other Insurers Flee, Centene To Enter ACA Exchanges In Kansas And Missouri
Three weeks after Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City said it will pull out of the Affordable Care Act exchange in 2018, Centene Corp. says it plans to offer coverage through the exchange in Missouri and Kansas. The St. Louis-based insurer already has a presence in both states administering Medicaid plans, but the move to sell individual and small group health plans is new. (Margolies, 6/13)
The Hill: Aetna Reverses Course, May Offer ObamaCare Policies In Nevada
Aetna has agreed to participate in the state's exchange in order to better the company's chances of winning a contract to offer Medicaid policies there, CNN Money reported Tuesday. In August, Aetna announced that it would significantly scale back its participation in the ObamaCare markets to just four states, down from 15 the year before. Nevada was one of the state exchanges that Aetna announced it would depart. In a statement Tuesday, Aetna wouldn't commit fully to offering plans next year. (Bowden, 6/13)
The Wall Street Journal: Anthem’s Boss Faces Tough Choices In Health-Care Debate
Anthem Inc.’s business is swirling with uncertainty as Congress debates new health-care legislation. That means tough choices are looming for the insurer’s chief executive, Joseph R. Swedish. One of those difficult decisions was revealed last week, when Anthem said it will withdraw from the Ohio insurance marketplace in 2018. Anthem’s departure leaves 18 Ohio counties poised to have no plans available through the marketplace next year. (Wilde Mathews, 6/13)
The Washington Post: Where The Obamacare Exchanges Might Have Zero Insurance Options In 2018
Next year, dozens of counties across the country could be left with no insurance companies offering insurance in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Nationwide, that leaves 35 thousand marketplace enrollees living in a county with no affordable way to purchase insurance (As it stands, people who receive subsidies can only use them to purchase coverage in the marketplace.), and 2.4 million would be left with just one insurer’s plan to choose from. That’s out of 12.2 million enrollees total. (Soffen and Uhrmacher, 6/14)
Meanwhile, media outlets fact check "death spiral" talk —
The Associated Press Fact Check: Obamacare 'Death Spiral' Is A Half-Told Tale
An AP Fact Check finds that the Trump administration is being selective with its information when it argues Obamacare is in a "death spiral." Vice President Mike Pence made that case Tuesday in remarks to federal employees. He correctly cited statistics showing 10.3 million people are enrolled in subsidized health insurance markets, far fewer than the 23 million projected for 2017. But he left out the fact that the law's Medicaid expansion is covering an estimated 12 million people. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/14)
The New York Times: Fact Check: These Statements By Trump’s Cabinet Don’t Match Policy
Members of the White House cabinet took turns praising President Trump at a gathering on Monday, adopting the commander in chief’s evaluations of himself. Their mimicry was not limited to a day of flattery; several have also adopted Mr. Trump’s rhetorical style of doubling down on false claims and pushing so-called alternative facts. At least four Trump administration cabinet secretaries have defended austere budget cuts and policy shifts at their departments with misleading statements in congressional testimony and other official settings. Here’s an assessment. (Qiu, 6/13)
