A major Obamacare insurer on Wednesday cited higher enrollment in Obamacare exchanges so far this year, and said it remains committed to the healthcare exchanges.
Anthem, which owns Blue Cross/Blue Shield, reported that enrollment in Obamacare’s exchanges was better than expected, and said it has enrolled 975,000 people, a boost of nearly 200,000 people compared to 2015. The news came just says after another insurer, UnitedHealth, said it was bailing out of the Obamacare exchanges after losing $425 million in those exchanges last year.
Anthem’s leadership did say that the insurer has taken a conservative outlook for Obamacare, especially after enrollment was lower than expected last year.
“Over time we do believe we are well positioned for continued growth if the market stabilizes to a more sustainable level,” said Anthem CEO Joe Swedish during an investor call Wednesday.
The Obama administration has a big role in helping to build that market, Anthem said.
In one example of a positive step for the company, executives pointed to the administration’s decision to eliminate certain special enrollment periods, which enable people to sign up for Obamacare year-round. Obamacare started out with more special enrollment periods, which include periods for people who lost their insurance, got married, or got divorced.
But those periods enabled people to sign up for Obamacare when they got sick, or drop out when they got better, which raised premiums for everyone else. Eliminating those special periods could help insurance companies stay in the black on Obamacare enrollments.
Other helpful measures could be an updated risk adjustment model, which pays insurers in an effort to help them cover substantial losses. Risk adjustment was put in place to help insurers adjust to the creation of the new Obamacare marketplace.
Anthem wasn’t specific, but it supports a tweak to the formula that increases those payments.
“When you put all of that together … I think a sustainable model can be built,” Swedish said.
Anthem has a bigger presence in Obamacare than UnitedHealth, which has a broader portfolio to cushion any exit from the marketplaces.
Anthem’s executives didn’t disclose how many of their enrollees were new or shifted to an Anthem plan. They did say that the closure of taxpayer-funded consumer oriented and operated plans did help with the enrollment boost.
So far, about 12 of the 23 co-op plans have shut down, and many have cited a lack of federal funding.
“I would say we picked up more than our market share,” said Wayne DeVeydt, Anthem’s chief financial officer.
