Anthem to re-enter individual health insurance market, restoring coverage for 70,000 Virginians

[riversedge]

Source: The Daily Progress





By Luanna Rife | The Roanoke Times 8 hrs ago (…)


ROANOKE — Anthem announced Friday that it would re-enter the individual health insurance market in Virginia, restoring coverage for 70,000 Virginians.

"Since learning that 63 counties and cities would not have access to individual health plans, Anthem has been engaged in further evaluation and discussion with regulators to ensure that no bare counties or cities exist in Virginia," the company said in a news release.

Anthem in mid-August announced that it would no longer participate in the individual market except for three small localities. This left parts of Western Virginia without a provider. Two weeks later, Optima, the only insurer left in some of the localities, said that it could not cover the region.

In the greater Charlottesville area, however, Anthem will only re-enter the marketplace for individual insurance policies in Augusta, Culpeper, Madison, Orange and Waynesboro, according to a news release. Policies through employers are unaffected by Anthem's withdrawal.
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Read more: http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/state/anthem-to-re-enter-individual-health-insurance-market-restoring-coverage/article_53284d56-9a3f-11e7-bdc3-27da0aa7ea81.html

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Good news for these folks. Small steps.




Mark Warner?Verified account @MarkWarner 8h8 hours ago

Mark Warner Retweeted The Daily Progress

Glad Anthem is re-entering the Va exchange. Now it's time for the Trump Administration to stop efforts to sabotage & destabilize the market.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[elleng]

1. So they only want to participate where there will be NO competition?

Did I get that right?

[Hortensis]

2. "Virginia's counties being filled means no county in the US is

slated to have empty areas next year." Business Insider

A big thank-you for Anthem's about face.

[mdbl]

3. I don't think it's out of the goodness of their hearts

Someone got some palm rubbing.

[Sunlei]

5. perhaps someone told anthem NO SUBSIDY MONEY if your corp doesn't list on exchange.

No Corporation wants to lose their "free" government money. (corporate welfare)

[Hortensis]

8. Yes. A huge progressive purposes of government is to use the tools legitimately

available to enable business to meet society's needs and still meet profit goals. That's a good thing.

Mdbl, by "palm rubbing" do you mean bribery? One of our nation's big problems is the right-wing Kool-Aid that government is intrinsically bad and corrupt. No one should leap directly to such a shabby conclusion -- and certainly not on DU about a Democratic governor. Even if Anthem executives were willing to accept envelopes slipped under the table, that Virginia has a Democratic governor means all kinds of corruption are much less likely than if he were Republican. Plus, of course, it's usually business paying pols, not vice versa.

[mdbl]

9. I didn't say bribery even though some government deals would probably fit that category

Just like a municipality paying 10 million dollars to and tax breaks to companies so it can hire locals to pay for it all. Just my take. It wasn't meant as an offence to anyone in particular other than the realization that for profit corps only do what is in their best interest, no one elses.

[Sunlei]

4. good news! Insurance Corps should be required to list on healthcareDOTgov ANY poicies they sell on

internet searches and TV.

do a google search and see all the big five insurance corps list lots of plans for sale.

Insurance corps just don't want to list on healthcare.gov because consumers have protection & help on healthcare.gov

[yardwork]

6. Democrats in Congress are keeping health insurance alive.

We are at war. The Republicans are trying to take health insurance away from everybody but the wealthy and privileged. The Democrats, even though we are the minority party and have no power to pass legislation or even convene committee meetings, are defending everybody's access to health care.

We can win this war if we elect a majority Democratic Congress in 2018.

[turbinetree]

7. So Ruz-Moss had an epiphany after Warren nailed this asshole for what he is.................