After opting out for the first two years of Iowa’s health insurance exchange program, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield announced this week that it will begin offering health insurance plans through the program starting in the fall of 2016, with coverage set to begin on Jan. 1, 2017.
Though Iowa’s rate of uninsured residents (6.2 percent according to the U.S. Census Bureau) is relatively low compared to other states, the Hawkeye state has seen considerably low enrollment in the health insurance exchange program, which was created in 2013 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Iowa’s low enrollment in the health insurance marketplace, the second-lowest in the country after Hawaii, is often attributed to Wellmark — the state’s largest health insurance provider — declining to participate.
Wellmark has been selling ACA plans over the last two years, it should be noted, but said plans have not been available through the health insurance exchange program. Rather, the company has sold ACA plans through agents, brokers and through its website, according to Wellmark spokeswoman Traci McBee.
Wellmark says it has delayed participating in the exchange for several reasons, including concerns over customer service, the reliability and data security of the health insurance marketplace, “the many government entities involved in the enrollment process,” as well as the previously unresolved case of King v. Burwell, which questioned the legality of giving residents tax credits for purchasing health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s exchange program. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the legality of said tax credits in a 6-3 decision earlier this year.
Wellmark CEO John Forsyth says the company is opting into the program after seeing improvements within the exchange that made Wellmark “more comfortable and confident with participating.” In a news release sent Monday, Forsyth said, “it was not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ we would join the public exchange,” adding that the company’s decision to participate is in its members “best interest.”
