Blue Cross Blue Shield has announced it is pulling out of Nebraska’s Obamacare marketplace, leaving only two insurers to sell plans there next year.
The insurer had covered about 20,000 marketplace customers last year, but says it has been steadily losing money on exchange policies since 2014, about $140 million. CEO Steve Martin told the Omaha World-Herald that losses could total $250 million by the end of 2017 were the trend to continue.
Two insurers, Aetna and Medica Health, have applied to continue selling plans through the state’s marketplace next year.
The announcement is the latest exit of an insurer from the Obamacare marketplaces, which will have fewer insurers next year due to financial losses from covering the new enrollees.
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican, said the news shows the Affordable Care Act is “failing.”
“This isn’t a political statement but an undeniable fact: Obamacare is failing,” Sasse said. “Nebraska families have suffered the co-opportunity failure, the unfortunate exits of UnitedHealth and now Blue Cross Blue Shield, and even those whose plans haven’t failed have seen rotten premium increases. This law isn’t working for Nebraska families.”
