UnitedHealth Group and Centene are among health insurers expanding sales of individual coverage under the Affordable Care Act into scores of new counties for 2025.
These expansions come amid the increasing popularity of Obamacare with record enrollment for individual coverage purchased on exchanges under the ACA in part because tax credits have continued and been enhanced to more Americans under the Biden-Harris administration. And that has helped such coverage to hit record enrollment of more than 20 million Americans this year.
“UnitedHealthcare individual & family ACA marketplace plans are now available in 30 states, offering affordable coverage with a wide range of benefits, cost transparency and predictability, and a simple enrollment and member service experience,” Marcus Robinson, chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Individual & Family Plans said Tuesday.
Health insurer announcements are coming ahead of open enrollment, which begins November 1 and runs to December 15 for coverage that starts January 1, 2025, according to the federal govermment’s website.
For 2025, UnitedHealthcare will be expanding its individual and family plans available on the ACA’s marketplaces to 139 counties in four new states: Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming. The expansion of UnitedHealthcare’s Obamacare footprint is also adding 119 new counties in the 13 states were the insurer already sells such coverage. Those states are Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, the company said.
“With these new coverage areas, we will be in over 1,250 counties across 30 states nationwide: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming,” UnitedHealthcare said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Centene, which is the nation’s largest provider of Obamacare, Wednesday said the company will expand its geographic footprint, “adding 60 new counties across 10 states in 2025, which includes expansion into Iowa.” That means Centene’s Ambetter Health, which was already the biggest provider of individual coverage under the ACA with more than 4,4 millon health plan members, will be available in 29 states across the U.S.
“Our continued geographic and product expansion provides us with a unique opportunity to deliver comprehensive, affordable health insurance solutions to more members for the 2025 plan year,” said Kevin Counihan, Chief Executive Officer of Ambetter Health. “This ensures even greater access to high quality health care in the communities we serve across the country.”
Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, which are also among the biggest providers of indivudal health insurance coverage, are also expanding Obamacare within their existing markets.
Take Health Care Service Corp., which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Montana. The insurer currently offers individual coverage under the ACA in 522 counties in the five states where it operates.
“We are offering additional products in 7 counties in Texas and Oklahoma in 2025,” a Health Care Service spokesman said Thursday. ”We will continue to offer plans in 5 states and in each of the total 522 counties within them in 2025.”
Still, not all big players in Obamacare are expanding.
Cigna is exiting 14 counties and three states and remaining in 352 counties across 11 states next year. “We strategically serve markets where we can ensure a combination of coverage excellence and network strength to help customers maintain their health and vitality—which has guided our approach to serving customers through the individual marketplace for the past 11 years,” said Chris DeRosa, president of the Cigna Healthcare U.S. Government business.
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