Insurer Centene will cover 14 counties in Nevada that don’t have any Obamacare insurer next year.
Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval announced during a Tuesday press conference that Centene will step in to offer plans for 8,000 Nevada residents across 14 counties. Sandoval said that it was embarrassing to have so many bare counties in the state.
“It was unacceptable to me to have something like this,” he said. “It was embarrassing for the state of Nevada not to have coverage in those areas.”
Sandoval said the state and insurer will talk about “pricing as we move forward,” since no rates have been announced for the bare counties.
The insurer is the latest to fill gaps in Obamacare coverage across the country. The move means that the number of counties with no Obamacare coverage will shrink to two, according to data from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
The bare counties are in Ohio and Wisconsin. There is still time for an insurer to sell coverage as contracts for Obamacare plans don’t have to be signed until the end of September.
