EDITORIAL: Need more, better choices: Congress must allow for more choices with health plan

June 24--As states and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sort through plans submitted for the federally-facilitated health exchanges, one thing is certain -- there will be fewer options.

Last week, CMS released a county-level map of projected health insurance exchanges participation for 2018. The map showed insurance options on the exchanges continue to disappear as plan options are down from last year.

In Kentucky, most counties will have only one health insurance option again. The biggest change is Humana Health Plan will no longer offer exchange plans. However, it offered plans in only nine counties in 2017.

Anthem Health Plans of Kentucky was the only company to offer coverage on the exchange in every county in the state for 2017. A spokesperson wouldn't confirm the insurer's plans, but based on last year, it may be the only option for many in the Commonwealth.

The CMS's county-level map did project a portion of Kentucky counties will have a second option, which will most likely be CareSource. This year, CareSource offered plans in 61 counties, which was up from 46 in 2016.

In the past two years, five providers have exited the exchange in Kentucky. The same is happening all across the country.

With the possibility of even more leaving, the CMS county-level map projected 47 counties across the country may have no option. As many as 1,200 counties -- nearly 40 percent nationwide -- could have only one issuer in 2018.

Even if Congress does not come to a consensus on replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it's possible the exchanges could simply implode as more insurers leave.

We hope this is a sign to our leaders in Washington that more work needs to be done.

Hopefully, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others have been paying attention to this problem.

Instead of fighting over just trying to repeal the ACA, McConnell needs to be working toward creating a better system that will survive.

After seeing the initial plans from the Senate and House, we're not positive that's happening. However, we're hopeful all sides will come together for the betterment of Kentuckians and all Americans.

We live in the greatest nation and to not have healthcare options that are affordable and truly helpful is shameful. Congress needs to step up and fix this problem.

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