Maryland’s individual health insurance market is in danger of collapse if government and industry don’t find ways to persuade younger, healthier people to purchase coverage, a legislative panel was told Wednesday.
The culprit, according to industry leaders, is the decision late last year by Congress and President Trump to repeal the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act.
“What we have seen is a shrinking of the enrollment, particularly off [Maryland’s health insurance] exchange,” Chet Burrell, CEO of CareFirst BlueCross, told the Senate Finance committee. “The reason for this, we think, is that premiums have reached a level that few can afford. And if you’re off the exchange, you’re paying the entire premium yourself.”
Burrell, who testified alongside a top official from Kaiser Permanente, the other firm offering coverage in the individual market in Maryland, expressed concern about “the viability of this market going forward.”
Sen. Brian J. Feldman (D-Montgomery), who has co-sponsored legislation to address the problem, told reporters, “We’re now seeing young, healthy people pull out of the insurance pool, which causes everybody else’s premiums to go up. We’ve got to find a way to get those folks back into the individual insurance market [and] stabilize the insurance market.”
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Bruce DePuyt over at Maryland Matters