Kentucky: Baptist out.
More last-minute shuffling... (h/t commenter "M E"):
Baptist Health Plan to stop selling insurance in Ky.
FRANKFORT (AP) — Baptist Health Plan says it will not sell policies in Kentucky next year, meaning about 7,000 people will have to find a new insurance provider.
Kentucky’s fourth-largest insurer notified state officials in a letter. In a news release, state officials say company President James S. Fritz said Baptist Health Plan had enrolled more people than it planned and said federal risk assessments imposed by the federal Affordable Care Act are “unsustainable.”
The company’s insurance plans sold on the state’s health exchange will be good through Dec. 31. Plans sold off the exchange will expire March 31, 2017.
The news means next year people in 59 counties will have one insurance provider selling plans on the state health exchange. Off the exchange, most counties will have two options, state officials said.
In other words, Baptist is dropping out of the entire individual market, both on and off-exchange. My last estimate of Kentucky's weighted rate hikes had Baptist down as only having around 1,100 individual enrollees, but it's possible that the other 5,900 were in plans which were being discontinued anyway.
Anyway, chalk up 7,000 more people. Here's how it impacts the average rate hike table:
As you can see, the overall average didn't really change much at all because Baptist's approved rate was only slightly higher than the average to begin with (and they have such a small share of the market anyway).