Insurers remain upbeat on exchanges

Associated Press

Slipping enrollment and struggling competitors have done little to shake the faith that the nation’s biggest health insurers have placed in the Affordable Care Act’s public insurance exchanges.

Aetna executives said Thursday that the exchanges, a key element in the overhaul’s push to cover millions of uninsured people, remain a good market, even though the insurer’s enrollment in them fell 11 percent to about 814,000 people in the third quarter. Leaders of the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer Anthem have voiced a similar sentiment, and UnitedHealth said earlier this month that it will expand into 11 more exchanges next year.

“We think it’s way too early to call it quits on the ACA and on the exchanges,” Aetna Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini told analysts Thursday. “We view it still as a big opportunity for the company.”

Nonprofit health insurance cooperatives in South Carolina, Tennessee and several other states have announced recently that they will fold for 2016, leaving many consumers with fewer choices when open enrollment begins Nov. 1. In addition to that, federal officials have said they expect only a slight overall increase in enrollment next year.

But for-profit insurers remain resolute in part because they have deeper pockets that allow them to wait out early losses while the exchanges develop. They also think the potential in this new market makes the wait worthwhile.