Bob Herman at Axios is doing a tremendous job of going through the financial statements of the Blues. This is a recurring project with a lot of insight. Overall, they are doing very well in 2018:
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Cumulatively, those Blues insurers made $8.6 billion in profit during the first six months of this year — a 42% increase from the same period in 2017.
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The ACA’s individual marketplaces remain profitable for nearly every Blues insurer.
Insurers massively overpriced the 2018 individual market.
I am predicting that there will be significant Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) rebates next summer. The calculations next summer will look at the MLR calculation for 2016-2017-2018. 2016 was a rough year, 2017 was a profitable but not extraordinarily profitable year. 2018 looks to be an extremely profitable year for at least some Blues. I think this data assembled by Bob supports the idea that there will be large checks being passed out in several states in the fall of 2019.