There has been much speculation concerning the Affordable Care Act’s so called “Health Insurance Marketplaces” (formerly referred to as Health Insurance Exchanges). Many questions have been hanging in the air such as: 1. will insurance cos. choose to participate in these exchanges?; 2. how many insurers will opt to participate?; 3. what will premiums look like inside the exchange?; 4. will the exchanges be operational in time to place coverage effective 1/1/14? Today it was announced that the state of California’s exchange (which choose to operate its own exchange, rather than defaulting to the federal option) will initially have 13 plans available for purchase. What’s very interesting, if not revealing, is which insurers opted NOT to participate in CA’s exchange. My guess is, readers of this blog post will recognize the insurers that opted NOT to participate better than the ones that opted TO participate, in CA’s exchanges.
