Ali Meyer of the Washington Free Beacon reports that much of the U.S. population is likely to see only one option for Obamacare health insurance coverage.
Roughly 41 percent of counties in the United States could have only one insurer participating on the Affordable Care Act exchanges next year, according to a new analysis from Avalere Health.
This percentage is up from the lack of participation in 2017, when roughly one-third of counties, or 33 percent, had only one insurer participating on the exchanges.
According to their count, there will be 47 counties that will have no insurer participating on the exchange leaving about 34,000 consumers with no choice.
Only 27 percent of counties will likely have more than three health insurers participating. In 2016, 64 percent of counties had three or more insurers participating.
“In addition to the cost of premiums, insurer decisions around whether or not to offer plans in the exchanges will impact shoppers,” said Caroline Pearson, senior vice president of the group. “Consumers will see fewer choices on the exchange again in 2018, with some counties at risk of having no options.”
Their analysis also finds that premiums for Obamacare’s silver plan will increase at about 18 percent on average in 2018.
