Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, with a long history of selling medical insurance directly to consumers, sold through the health law’s online marketplaces, or exchanges.
鈥淲e expect Blue Cross Blue Shield plans will have a strong, reliable presence in the new exchanges,”聽Alissa Fox, a senior vice president at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, recently told KHN. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been in this market for more than 80 years, and we鈥檝e been providing coverage in every zip code to everybody. We imagine we will continue to do that.鈥
But on Monday Iowa and South Dakota became the second and third states in which there may be no Blues option when exchange consumers start shopping on Oct. 1. Citing concerns about its ability to deliver quality service as the marketplace ramps up, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield through those exchanges until 2015.
“Given what we know today, we do not believe during the first year of the public exchange we could ensure the exceptional level of service our members have come to expect from Wellmark,” said the company’s statement. “For this reason, we have decided it is in our members鈥 best interest to delay our participation in the public exchange until 2015.”
Wellmark, which of the individual health-policy business in Iowa and in South Dakota, will continue to sell unsubsidized individual policies in those states. Six companies filed to sell individual plans on the Iowa exchange, two of them statewide, the Monday.
The fewer insurers that sell through exchanges, the less competition there will be for customers through price and service. Many insurers are approaching the exchanges cautiously because of concerns that the technology may not be ready and that the first customers will be disproportionately sick and expensive, analysts say.
Last month in Mississippi, Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney disclosed that in some counties 聽and that the Mississippi Blues had not applied to sell through the exchange.
“At this time we do not have any comment regarding our participation in the exchange,” said a spokeswoman for BlueCross BlueShield of Mississippi.
The Blues are a federation of insurance plans that were pioneers in health coverage in the years before World War II. A spokeswoman for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association referred queries about Iowa, South Dakota and Mississippi to Blues affiliates in those states.
