It comes as no surprise that UnitedHealth Group is not a fan of the Affordable Care Act. This year, the health care provider claimed a financial hit in 2015 due to the ACA with threats to withdraw from the Health Insurance Marketplace altogether. While that may still be in the cards, California is another state where UnitedHealth will no longer participate in the ACA’s Marketplace.
At the end of 2016, UnitedHealth will exit California’s Marketplace—making it yet another territory that the provider will leave—despite just entering the exchange this year. In April, UnitedHealth revealed that it would only participate in a little over 30 ACA Marketplaces across the country, but news of California comes as a shock, especially to California.
While areas like New York and Nevada can still benefit from UnitedHealth’s participation in the ACA exchange, the provider has already pulled itself from a number of markets in need of competitive plans—New Jersey also being a recent departure. It’s certainly resulted in an uptick of smaller health care providers entering the Marketplace race.
However, with outlandish requests for percentage hikes on behalf of UnitedHealth, coupled with the fact that its exit from the California exchange was unbeknownst to California, it’s a loud message from UnitedHealth that they are not particularly fond of the Affordable Care Act.
While they will be departing from California’s ACA exchange, Covered California, they will still participate in health care for government employees via the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. The good news for California, however, is that while UnitedHealth may no longer be an option through the state's health exchange, Covered California’s initiative to find reasonable health insurance rates through negotiating with health care providers will offer Californians continued access to affordable health care.