Insurer Steps In To Provide ACA Coverage In Nation’s Last ‘Bare County’

The Associated Press: Insurer Fills Last Hole In Health Law Marketplaces For 2018
The lone U.S. county still at risk of leaving shoppers with no choices next year on the federal health law's insurance marketplace has landed an insurer. Ohio-based insurer CareSource will step up to provide coverage in Paulding County, Ohio, in 2018, the company and the state Department of Insurance announced Thursday. (Smyth and Murphy, 8/24)

The Washington Post: The Nation’s Final Bare Spot For Affordable Care Act Health Plans Is Filled In
Although insurers could still defect in the next month, before they must sign federal contracts to sell ACA coverage for the coming year, the move by CareSource to sell marketplace health plans in Paulding County, on the western edge of Ohio, appears to end a recent scramble by officials in seven states to persuade insurance companies to participate in a total of 81 counties. Those potential bare spots emerged mainly as large, nationwide insurers have withdrawn from all or most of the ACA marketplaces they once served — a result of sicker and more expensive customers than they had expected and uncertainties bred by Republican efforts to overturn much of the 2010 health-care law. (Goldstein, 8/24)

The Wall Street Journal: All U.S. Counties To Have An ACA Plan After Ohio Plugs Last Gap
CareSource’s chief executive, Pamela Morris, said the decision “was the right thing to do as a mission-driven company.” CareSource was able to agree to offer exchange plans in Paulding County because it has a presence in a neighboring county in the adjacent state of Indiana and thus has a network of health-care providers there. Ms. Morris said CareSource, which offers exchange plans in four states, was “fully committed” to those marketplaces, despite uncertainty about federal decisions related to the health-law marketplaces. (Wilde Mathews, 8/24)