On Tuesday, the Louisville, KY based insurer Humana announced its decision to exit the Obamacare exchanges in 2018. This decision follows the insurers reduced participation in 2017.
In a statement, Humana’s CEO explained the insurer’s decision saying, "Based on our initial analysis of data associated with the company's health-care exchange membership following the 2017 open enrollment period, we continue to see further signs of an unbalanced risk pool. Therefore, the company has decided that it cannot continue to offer this coverage for 2018.
Eighth District Congressman and physician Larry Bucshon, release the following statement regarding Humana’s departure:
“Unfortunately limited patient choice and higher costs have become the norm under Obamacare,” said Bucshon. “Humana’s announcement is further evidence that the law is failing and leaving vulnerable patients with nowhere to go. Those who irresponsibly insist on protecting Obamacare at all costs are supporting this status quo that is collapsing before us. We are working to bring families relief by repealing and replacing the Obamacare disaster.”
It’s clear that Obamacare is limiting patient choice. Currently, one-third of the nation has access to only one insurer and two-thirds of the country has access to only two insurers.
Dr. Bucshon recently spoke on the House floor to discuss this reality: https://youtu.be/fCTRivVmcdQ.
Humana’s announcement on Tuesday and the projection by Aetna’s CEO yesterday that, “More insurers will pull out of the government-run marketplaces in the coming weeks and many areas will have no insurers to provide Affordable Care Act coverage in 2018,” will only exacerbate this growing problem.
Congressman Larry Bucshon, M.D. is a physician and Republican member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee serving his third term representing Indiana's 8th Congressional district. The 8th District of Indiana includes all or parts of Clay, Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Greene, Knox, Martin, Owen, Parke, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Sullivan, Vanderburgh, Vermillion, Vigo, and Warrick counties.
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