- One Insurer Is Making Obamacare Work Bloomberg by Zachary Tracer — Just hours before Senate Republicans are expected to take a crucial first vote on repealing Obamacare, one health insurer is saying that its big bet on the health insurance law has been paying off. Centene Corp. beat Wall Street's earnings estimates for the second quarter and said that much of its strength came from the company's Affordable Care Act marketplace health plans, where the insurer has about 1.1 million of its 12.2 million customers. "The marketplace business continues to be particularly strong, confirming our business-as-usual approach," Centene Chief Executive Officer Michael Neidorff said in a statement announcing the quarterly results.
- Unsure of the Future, States Guess Their Way Through 2018 Rate Filing Season Modern Healthcare by Virgil Dickson — Faced with uncertainty around the federal government's commitment to pay out funds meant to help consumers afford coverage on Affordable Care Act exchanges, state insurance commissioners are being put in the position to guess the future. If they make the wrong choice, their residents could find themselves without coverage and the ability to access care. States are now in the home stretch of finalizing rates for the upcoming 2018 open-enrollment period, but the Trump administration's pattern of funding cost-sharing reduction payments on a month-by-month basis has put state regulators and insurers in unknown — and somewhat uncomfortable — territory. "The administration controls the panic button," said Mike Rhoads, deputy commissioner of health insurance for Oklahoma. "They can simply discontinue all of a sudden these payments to plans."