Post by Logan on Feb 12, 2016 4:05:30 GMT -6
Blue Cross CEO says insurer may leave ACA market in NC in 2017
RALEIGH -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the state’s largest health insurer, expects to report its second consecutive financial loss in the coming weeks, as the company contends with continuing cost overruns under the Affordable Care Act, CEO Brad Wilson said Wednesday.
Wilson warned that Blue Cross cannot continue sustaining financial losses indefinitely in North Carolina and may have to decide later this year whether to get out of the ACA market in 2017. Blue Cross raised rates by an average 32.5 percent this year in the state, but Wilson said that wasn’t enough to stem losses.
“We can’t offer something for sale in this marketplace that we know every time it’s purchased we’re losing money,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s comments, made in a meeting Wednesday with members of The News & Observer editorial board and editors, mark the Triangle insurance executive’s strongest public expression of doubt about how the ACA is playing out here. Executives at other major insurers have also threatened to drop their ACA business if it continues losing money, but Blue Cross has consistently maintained its commitment to the federal health care law in North Carolina.
Read more here: www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article59636351.html
RALEIGH -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the state’s largest health insurer, expects to report its second consecutive financial loss in the coming weeks, as the company contends with continuing cost overruns under the Affordable Care Act, CEO Brad Wilson said Wednesday.
Wilson warned that Blue Cross cannot continue sustaining financial losses indefinitely in North Carolina and may have to decide later this year whether to get out of the ACA market in 2017. Blue Cross raised rates by an average 32.5 percent this year in the state, but Wilson said that wasn’t enough to stem losses.
“We can’t offer something for sale in this marketplace that we know every time it’s purchased we’re losing money,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s comments, made in a meeting Wednesday with members of The News & Observer editorial board and editors, mark the Triangle insurance executive’s strongest public expression of doubt about how the ACA is playing out here. Executives at other major insurers have also threatened to drop their ACA business if it continues losing money, but Blue Cross has consistently maintained its commitment to the federal health care law in North Carolina.
Read more here: www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article59636351.html