Giant insurer Aetna said Wednesday it will not sell Obamacare plans in Virginia next year, citing expected financial losses on such plans in 2017.
Aetna left open the question of whether it will sell such individual health plans anywhere in the United States.
Aetna’s decision to exit Virginia in 2018 comes several weeks after it said it would drop out of Iowa’s individual market next year.
The company was selling Obamacare plans in just two other states this year: Delaware and Nebraska.
“Despite significantly reducing our exchange footprint, our individual commercial products could potentially lose more than $200 million in 2017,” said Aetna spokesman T.J. Crawford.
“Based on that financial risk, and growing uncertainty in the marketplace, we will not offer on- or off-exchange individual plans in Virginia for 2018. We will communicate decisions on our remaining states as appropriate.”
An email from Crawford contains a graphic image depicting Aetna’s approximate pre-tax losses on Obamacare plans since they began being sold in 2014. They go from about $100 million that year, up to $130 million in 2015, and about $450 million last year.
The pull-out of Virginia, Iowa, and potentially the other two states will not affect customers covered by Aetna through either their employer, or through Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans. The move only relates to individual plans sold on and off of the federal Obamacare exchange HealthCare.gov.
Aetna last year sold individual Obamacare plans in 15 states. But it retreated to just four states in 2017 because of losses from the plans.
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini on Tuesday had told CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” that given the expected losses for 2017, “we’re evaluating the markets as we speak.”
“We will be notifying some other states shortly. We only have four states remaining, so our presence will be smaller than it is this year,” Bertolini said that day.