Another Insurer Steps Back From Illinois Exchange

Jan. 18--Insurer Health Alliance Medical Plan will stop accepting new Obamacare exchange customers this week, even though open enrollment for the marketplace doesn't close until Jan. 31, the insurer announced Wednesday.

Despite its removal from the exchange, consumers already enrolled in Health Alliance plans for 2017 will keep their coverage. The move will leave some Illinois consumers with fewer choices for coverage amid an enrollment season already marked by complaints about fewer options.

Health Alliance offered exchange plans mostly in central and southern Illinois, not in Cook, Lake, McHenry, Kane, Will or DuPage counties. Health Alliance generally will stop accepting new on-exchange and off-exchange individual members for at least 180 days.

"With the exit of many large carriers from the individual market and big premium increases from other carriers, Health Alliance had to plan ahead and set a limit on how many new enrollees it would accept for 2017 individual plans," the Urbana-based insurer said in a news release Wednesday.

Health Alliance CEO James Leonard said in the news release the insurer made the decision to "avoid distraction from serving our existing customers and keep balance in our customer base."

He said that Health Alliance remains a "strong company."

The company capped individual enrollment at 25,000 new members, about double its individual membership in 2016, said Laura Mabry, a Health Alliance spokeswoman.

Health Alliance reached an agreement with the Illinois Department of Insurance and the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to cap enrollment in the fall, Mabry said, but the cap was not publicly shared before Wednesday. Mabry said in an email that Health Alliance was sharing the information Wednesday because it had only recently reached the cap. "This has been a day-to-day discussion based on applications and enrollments," she said.

Neither the Department of Insurance nor the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had responded to questions by deadline Wednesday about whether other Illinois insurers also have such agreements to cap enrollment.

Statewide, rates for this year across all plans on the exchange increased by an average of 44 to 55 percent for the lowest-priced plans, and consumers found fewer choices even before Health Alliance announced its cap. Insurers Aetna, its Coventry brand, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare subsidiary Harken Health and Land of Lincoln all offered plans last year but not this year on the exchange.

The news of Health Alliance's cap also comes as congressional Republicans prepare to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Amid the talk of repeal, advocates of the law have been encouraging consumers to sign up for coverage, assuring them that their plans will be stable through 2017.

lschencker@chicagotribune.com

___

(c)2017 the Chicago Tribune

Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.