Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana expects to lose more than $200m on individual policies due to flawed rules in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Steven Udvarhelyi, the insurer’s new CEO and president, said the federal government keeps on changing ACA rules, some of which also remain unclear.
According to
Business Report, Udvarhelyi also said the government is not enforcing rules that aim to stop people from jumping into a policy during a special enrolment period and later dropping it after getting expensive treatment.
This resulted in the insurer’s multi-million losses on individual plans over a three-year period ending in 2016.
“The fragility of the individual marketplace is probably the most pressing policy issue we have that in my opinion is not being adequately addressed,”
Business Report quoted Udvarhelyi as saying.
If lawmakers fail to introduce structural changes to the ACA before late 2017, Udvarhelyi said Blue Cross cannot have a better estimate of its gains and losses until 2019.
Udvarhelyi said the insurer’s rates would skyrocket by over 30% until then.
“The question is can we hold on until 2019 and thereafter,”
Business Report quoted him as saying. “We plan to be in the individual into 2017, but we have to re-evaluate this every year.”
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