5 Companies Agree to Fill Gaps in Ohio’s Individual Health Insurance Market

Five health insurance companies in Ohio, including Molina Healthcare Inc., have stepped up to sell health plans in 19 counties that would have been without Obamacare individual coverage in 2018, the state’s insurance regulator said.

Ohio’s Department of Insurance said it had worked to draw in insurers for the 20 counties that were left without an option after others, including Anthem Inc., said it would exit in 2018.

Molina, Buckeye Health Plan, CareSource, Medical Mutual of Ohio and Paramount Health Care will together cover 19 counties where around 11,000 Ohioans are enrolled in these plans, the department said. It is continuing to look for an insurer for Paulding County where no insurer is presently planning to sell an exchange product in 2018.

The 19 counties being served are: Coshocton, Crawford, Guernsey, Hancock, Harrison, Hocking, Holmes, Jackson, Knox, Lawrence, Logan, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Van Wert, Vinton, Williams and Wyandot.

Republican lawmakers vowed to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, often called Obamacare, but so far have failed in their attempts to do so.

President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off about $8 billion in subsidies next year. Anthem has said that without those subsidies, it would need to raise premium rates by another 20 percent or leave more states. That could make plans so expensive that only the sickest Americans will buy them.

Across the U.S., 40 counties are expected to have no insurer offering individual coverage next year, but that number could rise, according to government data, Kaiser Family Foundation analysis and insurer disclosures.