North Carolina’s 2019 ACA market has a lot of news this week. First, Centene is entering two counties:
Missouri-based Centene Corp., the nation’s largest provider of individual health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, is expanding its coverage throughout the country, including North Carolina where it will offer plans in Durham and Wake counties under the name Ambetter.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) announced today it requested an overall average rate decrease of 4.1 percent for 2019 Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans offered to individuals. The reduction marks the first rate decrease in the history of Blue Cross NC since entering the current individual market more than 25 years ago….Had the federal government not eliminated the individual mandate penalty, requested rates would be another 4 percent lower….If federal Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) payments to insurers that were eliminated as of October 2017 were still in place, requested rates would be another 14 percent lower.