Bruce Japsen Senior Contributor Sep 18, 2019,11:28 am
Cigna is the latest health insurer to announce plans to expand
individual coverage to more markets across the U.S. under the Affordable Care
Act, saying such Obamacare plans will be available in 19 markets across 10
states in 2020.
Cigna said the expansion “includes expansion into select
counties in Kansas, South Florida and Utah as well as new counties in Tennessee
and Virginia,” which are new states for the company’s Obamacare business, the company announced Wednesday. Cigna
is already offers exchange plans in eight states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida,
Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Cigna, which last year bought the pharmacy benefit manager
Express Scripts, has been one of the few national health insurance carriers to
find success offering individual coverage under the ACA. Rivals including
Aetna, a unit of CVS Health, Humana and UnitedHealth Group largely left the
individual Obamacare market after being unable to successfully manage the costs
of sick patients signing up for health coverage.
That has left Blue Cross plans as the major provider of coverage
as well as Centene, which has grown its Obamacare business gradually to nearly
2 million enrollees across 20 states, will be expanding again for
2020 and is the largest carrier of individual coverage on the
ACA’s public exchanges. Centene is poised to become a more national player
should its proposed acquisition of WellCare Health Plans win regulatory
approval in the next year.
“More people who purchase health care coverage on the exchange
now will have access to Cigna’s broad range of products and services that makes
quality health care more accessible and affordable,” Brian Evanko, president of
Cigna’s government business, said in a statement. “We’ve
learned from our thoughtful approach and continuous presence on the exchange
how to deliver a great product with a simplified customer experience. We are
proud to be able to deliver our exceptional offering to even more people
throughout the U.S.”
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