Aetna pulls health plans from state insurance exchange

By Scott Dance, The Baltimore Sun

Aetna Inc. said Friday it canceled plans to sell insurance on Maryland's new health insurance exchange, set to open Oct. 1 as part of the federal health care reform law, after regulators cut the rates it could charge consumers for its plans.

Aetna was one of several carriers poised to sell on the state's exchange, along with Coventry Health Care, which Aetna acquired this spring. But Aetna told Maryland Insurance Commissioner Therese M. Goldsmith in a letter this week that cuts regulators made to the rates the companies had proposed "would not allow us to collect enough premiums to cover the cost of the plans."

The decision leaves the exchange with fewer choices for consumers who need to buy insurance, as required by the law, because they don't have it now or can't get it from their employer. But state officials said they don't expect the loss of Aetna and Coventry to significantly reduce consumers' options.

Read full article here from The Baltimore Sun