(Bloomberg) -- Obamacare plans will be sold in every part of the U.S. next year after an insurer agreed to do business in a small Ohio county, overcoming predictions that some Americans wouldn’t have access to coverage under the law in 2018.
Ohio announced Thursday that health insurer CareSource will offer Affordable Care Act coverage next year in Paulding County. The county, in the northwest corner of the state, had been left without ACA coverage for 2018 after Anthem Inc. said in June it would pull out.
State regulators have been negotiating with insurers to sell plans in counties where other plans, including many of the large, publicly traded companies, pulled back from the law.While people in places without Obamacare plans would have been able to buy health insurance, they wouldn’t have access to the subsidized coverage that’s available under the law.
“Our decision to offer coverage in the bare counties speaks to our mission and commitment to the marketplace and serving those who are in need of health care coverage,” said CareSource Chief Executive Officer Pamela Morris, in a statement with the state announcing the expansion.
Ohio’s insurance regulators have found insurers to cover about 20 counties that could have been left without Obamacare coverage. Without new plans, about 11,000 people who bought Obamacare coverage in the counties would have been unable to in 2018, according to the state.
“There is a lot of uncertainty facing consumers when it comes to health insurance and these announcements will provide important relief,” Ohio Department of Insurance Director Jillian Froment said in the statement.
Even though all counties are now covered, consumers still face fewer choices in some places, because of the pullbacks. In many counties, they have only one insurer to choose from -- limiting the competition among plans that the law was supposed to offer.
The Trump administration, which has backed efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, had pointed to the potentially bare counties as evidence the law was failing. A request for comment from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department wasn’t immediately returned.
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