eAlert Tue, 03/06/2018 - 12:00 f30e0f61-ac31-48bf-a9de-c8dda987339f

<p>In 2017, there were five states where only one insurer participated in the health care marketplace: Alabama, Alaska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming. With actions by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress fueling uncertainty over the future of the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces, there are fears that insurers may exit marketplaces in other states, leaving consumers with diminished plan choice and higher premiums.</p><p>In a new Commonwealth Fund brief, analysts with NORC at the University of Chicago examine the history, before and after the ACA’s passage in 2010, of the individual insurance market in those five, mostly rural, states. The authors also examine how premiums changed as the number of carriers declined.</p>
<p>Understanding what happened to competition and consumer choice in these states, the authors say, may help policymakers identify ways to strengthen and improve the stability of health insurance markets across the nation.</p>

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2018/mar/competition-and-premiums-in-states-with-one-insurer Read the brief