You cannot afford to keep Obamacare — just as was predicted.
Medica intends to stay in Iowa’s health-insurance market, at 43% higher price
CLOSE The last carrier standing in Iowa’s individual health-insurance market said Monday that it intends to keep selling such policies here next year, but it would need to charge much higher premiums than it’s collecting now. Even after Monday’s announcement, Medica still could pull out of the Iowa market, as many experts feared.
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That could leave no options for up to 72,000 Iowans who now buy their own insurance instead of obtaining it via an employer or government program, such as Medicare or Medicaid.
“When you find yourself as the only ones between people getting access to care and people not getting access to care, your view of the situation becomes very different,” Medica Vice President Geoff Bartsh said in a prepared statement. “We’ve filed with the intent to provide access to insurance for all Iowans, whether they are farmers, small business owners or other individuals who need coverage.”
The relatively small, Minnesota-based carrier told Iowa regulators Monday that in order to stay in the market, they would need to increase premiums by an average of 43.5 percent. Many Iowans who buy individual insurance would be protected from much of that increase by subsidies they receive under the Affordable Care Act. But others would bear the full cost.