While More Insurers Exit Texas Health Coverage Market, Prospects Not Yet as Dire as in Other States

Eight health insurers have formally exited Texas’ individual market for health coverage, a blow to competition in the Obamacare insurance exchange north of Dallas, in Cooke, Fannin and Grayson counties along the Texas-Oklahoma border.Statewide, though, the eight companies comprise only 4 percent of the individual market, said Texas Department of Insurance spokesman Ben Gonzalez.Still, because the withdrawals are effective for at least five years, they amount to a near-permanent shunning of a potentially lucrative book of business, both inside and outside the exchange, in the nation’s second most populous state.The exits are likely to stoke the already sky-high anxiety of consumers and providers as well as insurance company officials about which insurers will remain in Texas’ individual market, to what extent and at what cost.  Continue reading...