Ohio Works With Insurers to Fill 2018 ACA Marketplace Gaps

The Ohio Department of Insurance announced today that it restored coverage in the 19 state counties that had no ACA marketplace insurers for 2018.

Earlier this year, a number of insurers, including Anthem, announced that they would stop offering plans in certain Ohio counties, leaving 20 counties without coverage options.

“Knowing 20 counties might not have access to health insurance on the exchange in 2018, our team went to work with the companies to find a way through the challenge, and together we have identified a solution,” Jillian Froment, director of the Ohio Department of Insurance, said in a press release. “Ohio has long had a strong insurance system and once again our insurers stepped up at an important time for thousands of Ohioans, taking unprecedented action to provide access to health insurance for Ohioans who otherwise were without options.”

Five insurers, including, Buckeye Health Plan, CareSource, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Molina, and Paramount Health Care, all stepped up to absorb a portion of the counties without coverage throughout Ohio. The state has restored coverage to Coshocton, Crawford, Guernsey, Hancock, Harrison, Hocking, Holmes, Jackson, Knox, Lawrence, Logan, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Van Wert, Vinton, Williams and Wyandot county—covering approximately 11,000 health insurance enrollees.

“We are pleased to expand Ambetter from Buckeye Health Plan from 9 to 27 Ohio counties in 2018,”  “Bruce Hill, president and CEO of Buckeye Health Plan, said in the press release. “Working in partnership with the state to include three of the bare counties helps ensure that Ohio residents will continue to have access to high-quality, comprehensive health care.”

The state noted that there is one final county, Paulding, which still remains uninsured. Ms Froment stated that the Department is actively working towards restoring coverage in the last remaining county.

“There is more work to do as we try to secure coverage options in Paulding County while also making sure this plan can be finalized in the fall,” she said. “We will continue working with the industry, but those efforts are heavily dependent on market stability and clarity from Washington.  We encourage Congress to work on ways to stabilize our health insurance markets.”

According to a recently released “2018 Health Insurance Exchanges Issuer County Map,” by the CMS, this announcement should decrease the number of nationwide counties without ACA coverage options in 2018—from 40 to 21.

—David Costill